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THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  ILLINOIS 

LIBRARY 

Presented  in  1923 

By  Professor 
Bvarts  Boutell  Greene 

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books. 

U.  of  I.  Library 


AUG      6    1938 

VL\i    Ik   I94U 

8057-S 

.    A    SHORT    HISTORY 


OF 


IRELAND 


FKOM  THK  KAllLIEST  TIMKS  TO  THE   TRESENT   DAY 


BY 

JUSTIN  li.  McCarthy 


NEW  YORK 

JOHN  B.  ALDEN,  PUBLISHER 

1893. 


In 

o- 


o 


CONTENTS 


■4 


CHAPTER. 

Tlio    T  .   „ 


PAQB. 

I.  The  Legends,         -            -            -  ^ 

II.  Christianity,     -            -            -  21 

III.  The  Norman  Conquest,     -            -  29 

lY.  Elizabeth.         .            -            -  43 

V.  The  Croinweliian  Settlement,        -  5G 

VI.  The  Kestoration.— William  of  Orange,  69 

VII.  The  Eighteenth  Century,         -  T8 

VIII.  Emmet.— O'Connell,          -            -  99 

IX.  Young  Ireland. — Fenianism,"  -  113 

X.  The  Land  Question.           -            -  127 

XI.  Home  Rule.— The  Land  League,  140 


574tia5 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE    LEGENDS. 

As  we  peer  doubtfully  into  the  dim  past  of 
Irish  history  we  seem  to  stand  like  Odysseus 
:it  the  yawning  mouth  of  Hades.  The  thin 
shades  troop  a])Out  us,  and  flit  hither  and  thither 
titfully  in  shadowy  confusion.  Stately  kings 
sweep  by  in  their  painted  chariots.  Yellow- 
haired  heroes  rush  to  battle  shaking  their  spears 
and  shouting  their  war-cries,  while  the  thick 
gold  torques  rattle  on  arm  and  throat,  and  their 
many-cok)red  cloaks  streanl  on  the  wind.  They 
sweep  by  and  are  lost  to  siglit,  and  their  places 
are  taken  by  others  in  a  shifting,  splendid,  con- 
fused pageant  of  monarchs  and  warriors,  and 
beautiful  women  for  whose  love  tlie  heroes  are 
glad  to  die  and  the  kings  to  peril  their  crowns ; 
and  among  them  all  move  the  majestic,  white- 
robed  bards,  striking  their  golden  hai'ps  and 
telling  the  tales  of  the  days  of  old,  and  hand- 
ing down  the  names  of  heroes  forever.  What 
may  we  hope  to  distinguish  of  this  weltering 
world  of  regal  figures,  whirled  by  before  our 
eyes  as  on  that  infernal  wind  which  seared  the 
eyes  of  Dante?  The  traveller  in  Egypt  goes 
down  into  the  tombs  of  the  kings  at  ancient 
Thebes.  By  the  flaring  flicker  of  a  candle  he 
discerns  dimly  on  the  walls  about  him  endless 
processions  of  painted  figures — ^the  images  of 
kings  and  beggars,  of  soldiers  and  slaves,  of 


6         A  SHORT  H  J  STORY  OF  IRELAND. 

the  teeming  life  of  ages — portrayed  in  glowing 
colors  all  around.  It  is  but  for  a  moment, 
while  his  candle  is  slowly  burning  down,  that 
he  seems  to  stand  in  the  thronged  centuries  of 
Egyptian  dynasties  with  all  their  named  and 
nameless  figures  ;  and  then  he  passes  out  again 
into  the  upper  air  and  level  sunlight  of  the  The- 
ban  valley,  as  one  who  has  dreamed  u  chaotic 
dream. 

Groping  in  the  forgotten  yesterday  of  Irish 
legend  is  like  this  grof)ing  in  an  Egyptian  tomb. 
We  are  in  a  great  sepulchral  chamber — a  hall  of 
the  dead,  whose  walls  are  pictured  with  endless 
ligures,  huddled  together  in  bewildering  fantas- 
tic medley.  What  can  we  make  out,  holding 
up  our  thin  taper  and  gazing  doubtfully  at  the 
storied  walls  ?  Yon  fair  woman,  with  the  crowd 
of  girls  about  her,  is  the  Lady  Ceasair,  who 
came  to  Ireland  before  the  deluge,  with  fifty 
women  and  three  men,  Bith,  Ladia,  and  Fintain. 
The  waters  swept  away  this  curiously  propor- 
tioned colony,  and  their  place  was  taken  "in 
the  sixtieth  year  of  the  age  of  Abraham"  by 
the  parricide  Partholan,  of  the  stock  of  Japhet. 
For  three  hundred  years  his  descendants  iniled, 
until  a  pestilence  destroyed  them  all.  The  Ne- 
medhians,  under  Xemedh,  loomed  up  from  the 
shores  of  the  Black  Sea  and  swarmed  over  Ire- 
land. They  were  harassed  by  plagues  and  by 
incessant  battlings  with  the  Fomorians,  a  race 
of  savage  sea-kings,  descendants  of  Cham,  who 
had  settled  in  the  Western  Isles.  In  the  end 
the  Fomorians  triumphed ;  they  drove  out  the 
remnant  of  Nemedhians  whom  plague  and  sword 
had  spared.  This  remnant  fled,  some  to  the 
noi-th  of  Europe  to  })ecome  the  ancestors  of  tlie 
Firbolgs,  some  to  Greece  to  give  a  parentage  to 


THE  LEGENDS.  \     '  7 

the  Tuatha  de  Danann,  and  some  to  Britain, 
which  took  its  name  from  the  Nemedhian  leader y 
Briotan-Maol. 

After  a  time,  the  first  of  the  Nemedhian  ref- 
ugees, the  Firbolgs,  came  ])ack  to  Ireland,  to  ]>e 
soon  dispossessed  by  another  invasion  of  Nemed- 
hian descendants,  the  Tuatha  de  Danann,- who 
came  from  Greece,  and  who  were  deeply  skilled 
in  all  wizardries.  Their  sorceries  stood  them  in 
good  stead,  for  the  Firbolgs  made  a  fierce  re- 
sistance. A  desperate  battle  was  fought,  in 
which  the  Firbolg  king  was  slain.  His  grave 
is  still  shown  on  the  Sligo  strand,  and  it  is 
fabled  that  the  tide  will  never  cover  it.  Nuada, 
the  king  of  the  Tuatha  de  Danann,  lost  his  right 
hand  in  this  fight,  and  seems  to  have  gone  near 
losing  his  kingship  in  consequence,  as  his  war- 
like people  would  have  refused  to  recognize  a 
mutilated  monarch.  But  there  were  cunning 
artificers  among  the  Greeks.  One  of  these  fash- 
ioned a  silver  hand  for  the  king,  who  was  known 
as  Nuada  of  the  Silver  Hand  ever  after.  The 
first  of  "The  Three  Sorrowful  Tales  of  Erin" 
belongs  to  the  rei<rn  of  this  Sovereign  with  the 
Argent  Fist — the  tale  of  the  fate  of  the  children 
of  Turenn.  The  three  sons  of  Turenn,  Brian, 
Ur,  and  Urcar,  killed  Kian,  father  of  Luga  of 
the  Long  Arms,  and  one  of  the  three  sons  of 
Canta,  with  whom  the  three  sons  of  Turenn 
were  at  feud.  Six  times  the  sons  of  Turenn 
buried  the  body  of  their  victim,  and  six  times 
the  earth  cast  it  up  again,  but  on  the  seventh 
burial  the  body  remained  in  the  grave.  As  the 
sons  of  Turenn  rode  from  the  spot  a  faint  voice 
came  from  the  ground,  warning  them  that  the 
blood  they  had  spilled  would  follow  them  to  the 
fulfilment  of  their  doom.     Luga  of  the  Long 


8         A  SHOUT  HISTOR  Y  OF  IRELAND. 

Arms,  seeking  for  his  father,  came  to  the  grave, 
and  there  the  stones  of  the  earth  took  voice  and 
told  him  that  his  father  lay  beneath.  Luga  un- 
earthed the  body,  and  vowed  vengeance  on  the 
sons  of  Turenn  over  it.  He  then  hastened  to 
Tara,  to  the  court  of  Nuada  of  the  Silver  Hand, 
and  'denounced  the  sons  of  Turenn.  In  those 
days  the  friends  of  any  murdered  person  might 
either  receive  a  fine,  called  "  eric,"  in  compen- 
sation, or  might  seek  the  death  of  the  murderer. 
Luff  a  called  for  the  "  eric."  He  demanded  three 
apples,  the  skin  of  a  pig,  a  spear,  two  steeds 
and.  a  chariot,  seven  pigs,  a  hound- whelp,  a 
cooking-spit,  and  three  shouts  on  a  hill.  To 
this  "eric"  the  sons  of  Turenn  agi'eed  readily 
enough  before  all  the  court.  Then  Luga  ex- 
plained himself  more  fully.  The  three  apples 
were  to  be  plucked  from  the  garden  of  Hisberna, 
in  the  east  of  the  world.  They  were  the  color 
of  burnished  gold,  and  of  the  taste  of  honey, 
and  cured  wounds  and  all  manner  of  sickness, 
and  had  many  other  wonderful  qualities.  The 
garden  of  Hisberna  was  carefully  guarded,  and 
none  were  allowed  to  take  its  precious  fruit. 
The  pig-skin  belonged  to  the  King  of  Greece, 
and  possessed  the  power  of  healing  whosoever 
touched  it.  The  spear  was  a  venomed  weapon 
with  a  blazing  head,  belonging  to  the  King  of 
Persia.  The  two  steeds  and  chariot  belonged 
to  the  King  of  Sicily.  The  seven  pigs  were 
the  delight  of  Asal,  King  of  the  Golden  Pillars, 
for  they  could  be  killed  and  eaten  one  day,  and 
become  alive  and  well  the  next.  The  hound- 
whelp  belonged  to  the  King  of  Iroda,  and  every 
wild  beast  of  the  forest  fell  powerless  before  it. 
The  cooking-spit  belonged  to  the  warlike  women 
of  the  island  of  Fincara,  who  never  yet  gave  a 


THE  LEGENDS.  9 

cooking-spit  to  any  one  who  did  not  overcome 
them  in  battle.  The  hill  on  which  the  three 
shouts  had  to  be  given  was  the  hill  of  Midkena, 
in  the,  north  of  Lochlann,  the  country  of  the 
Danes,  which  was  always  guarded  by  Midkena 
and  his  sons,  who  never  allowed  any  one  to 
shout  on  it. 

The  sons  of  Turenn  were  much  daunted  by 
this  terrible  "eric,"  but  they  were  bound  to 
fulfil  it.  They  set  sail  in  an  enchanted  canoe, 
the  Wave  Sweeper,  to  the  garden  of  Hisberna, 
and  succeeded,  by  turning  themselves  into 
hawks,  in  carrying  off  the  apples.  They  then 
visited  Greece  in  the  guise  of  learned  poets  from 
Erin,  and  after  a  desperate  fight  overcame  the 
King  of  Greece  and  his  champions,  and  carried 
off"  the  pig-skin.  Leaving  the  shores  of  Greece 
"and  all  its  blue  streams,"  they  sailed  to  Per- 
sia, where  they  had  to  fight  another  battle  with 
the  king  before  they  could  carry  off  the  blazing 
weapon  in  triumph.  They  then  voyaged  to 
Sicily,  overcame  its  monarch,  and  drove  off*  the 
famous  chariot  and  horses.  Next  came  the  turn 
of  Asal,  King  of  the  Golden  Pillars,  but  their 
fame  had  gone  l)efore  them,  and  Asal  gave  up 
his  seven  pigs  without  a  contest.  He  even  ac- 
companied them  to  Iroda,  and  aided  them  to 
obtain  the  hound- whelp. 

Meanwhile  the  fame  of  the  successes  of  the 
sons  of  Turenn  had  come  to  Erin,  and  Luga  of 
the  Long  Arms  cast  a  Druidical  spell  over  them, 
so  that  they  quite  forgot  the  cooking-spit  and 
the  three  shouts  on  a  hill,  and  came  back  to 
Erin  thinking  that  they  had  fulfilled  their 
"eric."  But  when  Luga  saw  their  spoils,  he 
reminded  them  of  the  unfulfilled  part  of  the 
compact,  and  the  heroes  had  to  set  out  again 


10^     A  SHORT  HISTOR  Y  OF  IRELAND. 

with  heavy  hearts,  for  they  knew  that  Luga  de- 
isired  their  death.  Wlien  Brian  got  to  the 
i.shmd  of  Fincara,  whicli  lies  beneath  the  sea, 
his  beauty  so  [)leased  the  warlike  women  that 
they  gave  him  a  cooking-spit  without  any 
trouble.  Now  all  that  was  left  to  the  heroes  to 
do  was  to  shout  the  three  shouts  on  Midkena's 
hill.  They  sailed  out  into  the  north  till  they 
came  to  it,  and  there  they  fought  desperately 
with  Midkena  and  his  sons,  and  overcame  and 
killed  them.  But  they  were  wounded  them- 
selves nigh  unto  death,  and  with  the  greatest 
difficulty  they  raised  three  feeble  shouts  on 
Midkena's  hill.  Then,  wounded  as  they  M^ere, 
they  sailed  back  to  Erin,  and  implored  Luga  to 
let  them  taste  of  the  apples  of  Hisberna,  that 
they  might  recover.  But  Luga  taunted  them 
with  their  murder  of  his  father,  and  would  be 
content  with  nothing  short  of  their  death  ;  so 
they  died,  and  the  blood  of  Kian  was  avenged. 
While  Nuada's  silver  hand  was  making,  his 
place  as  king  was  taken  by  'a  regent  named 
Bres.  But  when  the  silver  hand  was  finished, 
Bres  had  to  resign,  to  his  great  wrath  ;  and  he 
•left  the  country  and  roused  up  a  huge  host  of 
Fomorians  under-  Balor  of  the  Mighty  Blows, 
and  invaded  Ireland,  and  was  totally  defeated. 
Balor  of  the  Mighty  Blows  slew  the  poor  silver- 
handed  monarch,  and  was  slain  in  his  turn  by 
Luga  Long- Arms.  Then  Luga  became  king 
himself,  and  reigned  long  and  liai)pily,  and 
many  Tuatha  de  Danann  reigned  after  him. 
But  their  time  came  at  last  to  be  overthrown  by 
a  fifth  set  of  invaders — the  Milesians,  the  sons 
of  Milidh.  The  Milesians  were  an  eastern  race, 
whom  hoar  tradition  had  set  see  kino-  a  destined 
island ;  and  they  pursued  the  star  of  their  des- 


THE  LEGENDS.  U 

tiny,  the  fine-eyed  UU-Erin  to  the  Irish  shore. 
But  they  had  no  small  trouble  to  Avin  their  way  ; 
the  Tuatha  de  Danann  kept  them  oft*  as  long 
as  they  could  by  spells  and  incantations,  which 
wrapped  the  Milesian  fleet  in  thick  folds  of  im- 
penetrable mist,  and  shook  it  with  stonns,  and 
tossed  the  ships  together  on  writhing  waves. 
In  that  fierce  tempest  of  dark  enchantments 
many  of  the  sons  of  Milidh  perished ;  but  they 
effected  a  landing  at  last,  and  carried  all  before 
them,  and  drove  the  De  Danann  into  the  fast- 
nesses of  the  hills ;  and  the  Milesian  leaders, 
Heber  and  Heremon,  divided  the  island  between 
them.  They  quarrelled  about  the  division  soon 
after,  and  Heremon  killed  Heber  and  took  the 
whole  island  to  himself — a  Milesian  ver'sion  of 
Romulus.  To  this  period  belongs  the  second 
sorrowful  tale  of  Erin — ^the  tale  of  the  fate  of 
the  children  of  Lir. 

After  the  battle  of  Tailltenn,  in  which  the 
Milesians  won  Ireland,  the  defeated  Tuatha  de 
Danann  of  the  five  provinces  met  together  and 
chose  Bove  Derg  king  over  them  all.  Lir,  of 
Shee  Finnalia,  alone  refused  to  acknowledge 
the  new  monarch,  and  retired  to  his  own  cotin- 
try.  Some  of  the  chieftains  called  for  ven- 
geance on  Lir,  but  Bove  Derg  resolved  to  win 
his  allegiance  by  friendship.  He  offered  him 
the  choice  of  his  three  foster-daughters — Eve, 
Eva,  and  Alva — in  marriage.  Lir  relented, 
recognized  the  authority  of  Bove  Derg,  and 
married  Eve,  who  bore  him  one  daughter,  Fin- 
ola,  and  three  sons,  Aed,  Ficia,  and  Conn.  Eve 
died.  Lir  was  for  a  time  inconsolable,  but  on 
the  advice  of  Bove  Derg:  he  married  the  second 
foster-daughter,  Eva.  The  new  step-mother. 
after  the  fashion  of  fairy  tales,  grew  jealous  of 


12        A  SHOE  T  HISTOB  Y  OF  IRE  LA  ND. 

Lir's  love  for  his  children,  and,  like  the  woman 
in  the  German  folk-story,  turned  them  into 
swans.  Mere  metamorphosis  did  not  content 
her ;  she  laid  this  further  doom  on  the  children 
of  Lir — that  they  must  pass  three  hundred 
years  on  the  smooth  Lake  Dai"van,  three  hun- 
dred years  on  the  wild  Sea  of  Moyle,  and  yet 
three  hundred  more  on  the  Western  Sea.  Nor 
was  the  spell  to  be  loosened  until  the  sound  of 
a  Christian  bell  was  first  heard  in  Erin.  The 
only  mitigation  of  their  sufferings  was  the  privi- 
lege of  retaining  their  human  voices.  The 
wicked  step-mother  was  punished  l)y  Bove  Derg 
by  being;  turned  into  a  demon  of  the  air;  but 
the  children  of  Lir  had  to  dree  their  weird  for 
the  nine  appointed  centuries  until  the  coming  of 
Christianity,  when  they  were  disenchanted  In' 
St.  Kemoc.  In  their  human  form  they  were 
very  old ;  the  saint  baptized  them,  and  they 
died  and  Avent  to  heaven. 

What  shall  be  said  of  the  hundred  and  eighteen 
kings  of  the  Milesian  race?  Which  of  those 
crowned  fioures  is  Tighearnmas,  who  first 
taught  the  Irish  the  worship  of  idols,  and  who 
distinguished  his  people  into  different  ranks  by 
the  different  hues  of  their  garments?  Or  the 
wise  Ollav  Fodhla?  Or  that  Cimbaoth,  of 
whom  the  good  chronicler  Tighernach,  AI)l)ot 
of  Clonmacnoise,  wrote  that  all  the  Irish  records 
before  him  were  unceitain? — a  respectable  an- 
tiquity enough,  if  we  nn'ght  but  take  this  Cim 
baoth  and  his  deeds  for  granted  ;  for  Pythagoras 
had  just  been  crowned  in  the  sixteenth  Olym- 
piad, and  Nunia  ronii)ilius  was  still  listening  to 
the  sweet  counsels  of  the  nymph  Egeria  in  the 
cave  celebrated  by  Juvenal,  when  Cimbaoth 
reigned. 


THE  LEGENDS.  13 

Cimbaoth  built  the  palace  of  Emania .  Ugaine 
Mor  laid  all  Ireland  under  solenni  oath,  fearful 
as  the  ancient  pledi^e  by  Styx ;  for  he  bound 
them  by  the  visible  and  invisible  elements  to 
respect  the  rule  of  Iiis  race.  But  the  oath  was 
like  thin  air,  and  bound  no  one.  Ugaine's  son 
Lore,  and  Lore's  son  Oileel  Ainey,  Avere  slain 
by  Lore's  younger  brother  Corvac.  But  Cor- 
vac  did  not  slay  the  grandson  Lara  ;  for  the  boy 
feigned  idiocy,  and  the  cruel  king  spared  him 
— to  his  own  doom ;  for  the  boy  was  brought 
up  by  a  faithful  harper,  and  in  the  fulness  of 
time  married  a  king's  fair  daughter,  and  passed 
over  to  France,  and  brought  thence  an  arm}^  of 
stout  Gaulish  spearmen,  and  came  back  to  his 
own,  and  slew  Corvac,  and  founded  a  might}' 
line.  One  of  his  most  famous  descendants  was 
Yeoha,  surnamed  the  "Sigher"  for  the  sorrows 
he  endured.  For  he  married  a  fairy  bride, 
whom  lie  loved  tenderly  ;  but  after  a  time  there 
came  a  stranger  from  the  land  of  the  fairies,  and 
bore  her  back  to  the  fairy  world,  and  with  her 
went  all  the  joy  of  Yeoha's  life.  Then  his  three 
sons  rose  in  shameful  rebellion  against  him,  and 
were  all  slain,  and  their  heads  were  laid  at  their 
father's  feet.  Good  cause  for  sighing  had  Yeoha . 
But  he  was  not  all  unhappy.  His  fairy  bride 
had  borne  him  a  fairy  daughter,  the  beautiful 
and  gifted  Meave,  famous  in  Irish  chronicles, 
and  destined  to  fame  through  all  the  world  as 
Queen  Mab.  Meave  was  a  fierce,  warlike 
woman,  a  very  Semiramis  of  early  Irish  story. 
She  married  three  husbands,  and  quarrelled  with 
them  all.  In  her  reign  occurred  a  battle  be- 
tween two  bulls,  which  is  recounted  by  the 
bards  with  all  Homeric  gravity.  Meave  lived 
a  hundred  years,  and  waged  war  with  a  great 


14       A  SHORT  H13T0R  Y  OF  IRELAND. 

hero,  Cucullin,  and  at  last  the  fierce  queen  died 
and  passed  away.  To  her  time  belongs  the 
third  of  the  sorrowful  tales  of  Erin — the  story 
of  Deirdri,  the  beautiful  daughter  of  the  bard 
Felemi,  doomed  at  her  birth  to  bring  woe  to 
Ulster. 

Conor  Mac  Nessa,  the  King  of  Ulster,  adopted 
her,  kept  her  secluded,  like  Danae,  in  a  guarded 
place — not  so  well  guarded  but  that  she 
was  once  seen  by  Naesi,  son  of  Usna.  Naesi 
fell  in  love  with  her,  and  she  with  him.  He 
carried  her  oft*  with  the  aid  of  his  two  brothers, 
Anli  and  Ardan.  Conor  oflered  to  pardon  them 
if  they  came  back  to  Emania,  and  in  the  end 
they  did  agree  to  return,  escorted  by  a  legion 
of  soldiers  under  Fiachy ,  a  gallant  young  noble. 
As  they  approached  Emania,  Deirdri,  whose 
heart  forbode  evil,  declared  that  she  saw  a  blood- 
red  cloud  hanging  in  the  distant  sky.  Her  fears 
were  well  founded.  When  they  drew  near  the 
king's  capital,  another  noljle,  Durthacht,  with 
another  escort,  came  from  Conor,  and  called 
upon  Fiachy  to  yield  him  his  charge.  Fiachy 
suspected  the  treachery,  refused  to  yield  up  the 
sons  of  Usna  and  the  beautiful  Deirdri,  put 
them  into  a  palace,  and  guarded  it  with  his 
troops.  It  was  his  duty,  he  said,  to  show  that 
the  sons  of  Usna  had  not  trusted  in  vain  to  the 
king's  word  or  his  good  faith.  Then  Durthacht 
began  the  assault.  The  sons  of  Usna  wished  to 
surrender  themselves,  but  Fiachy  would  not 
allow  this — would  not  even  permit  them  to  take 
any  share  in  the  defence ;  it  was  his  duty,  and 
his  alone.  Then  the  sons  of  Usna  and  Deirdri 
withdrew  into  the  palace,  and  Deirdri  and  Naesi 
played  chess,  and  Anli  and  Ardan  looked  on 
while  the  battle  raged  outside.     This  battle  de- 


THE  LEGENDS.  "  If 

serves  a  place  in  story  with  the  fierce  strife  in 
the  halls  of  Attila  which  ends  the  "  Niebelungen 
Lied."  All  through  the  bloody  struggle  the 
sons  of  Esna  seemed  intent  alone  upon  the  game 
they  were  playing,  and  as  defence  after  defence 
of  the  palace  was  taken  they  remained  unmoved, 
till  at  last  Fiachy  was  killed,  and  the  enemy 
rushed  in  and  slew  the  sons  of  Usna  at  the 
board,  and  carried  off  Deirdri  to  Conor.  But 
the  king  had  no  joy  of  her,  for  she  killed  her- 
self soon  after. 

Meave's  descendants  ruled  till  the  reign  of 
Fiacha  Finnolaidh,  when  there  occurred  a  re- 
volt of  some  tribes  called  the  Attacotti,  under 
a  leader  nicknamed  "Cat^Head."  They  slew 
the  king,  and  placed  Cat-Head  on  his  throne. 
After  his  death  the  rightful  heirs  came  back, 
and  the  earth  showed  its  approval  b}'  bountiful 
produce ;  fruitfiil  meadows,  fishful  rivers,  and 
many-headed  woods  proclaimed  the  joy  of  the 
Irish  earth  at  the  return  of  its  tme  lords.  But 
the  Attacotti  rose  again  and  killed  a  rightful 
king,  and  a  curse  came  upon  the  earth,  and  it 
was  fruitless  and  cornless  and  Ashless,  till  once 
again  a  king  of  the  old  race,  Tuathal,  seized  the 
throne  from  the  usurpers,  and  pledged  the  peo- 
ple by  sun  and  moon  and  elements  to  leave  the 
sceptre  untroubled  to  his  posterity.  Tuathal 
then  took  a  piece  of  land  ft-om  each  of  the  four 
provinces,  and  formed  the  kingdom  of  Meath  to 
be  the  dwelling  of  the  Ard-Righ ;  and  he  built 
there  four  painted  palaces,  one  for  the  king  oi 
each  province. 

Conn  of  the  Hundred  Fights,  beloved  of  the 
bards,  is  the  next  famous  king.  After  Conn's 
death  the  land  passed  to  a  usurper,  Mac  Con, 
for  a  time  onlv,  to  return  to  the  most  famous 


16       A  SHOUT  HISTOR  Y  OF  IRELAND. 

of  the  early  kings,  Comiac  Mac  Art,  in  whose 
reign  the  Feni  flourished.  The  Feni  are  strange 
and  shadowy  figures,  Ossianic;  ghosts,  moving 
in  dusky  vales,  and  along  hill-sides  clothed 
with  echoing  woods  and  seamed  with  the  many- 
colored  sides  of  roaring  streams ;  or  by  the 
angry  sea,  where  the  screaming  sea-bird  wings 
his  fliaht  towards  the  dark  rollino;  heavens, 
where  the  awful  faces  of  other  times  look  out 
from  the  clouds,  and  the  dread  deities  keep  their 
cloudy  halls,  and  the  nightly  fires  l)urn.  It  is  a 
land  of  mists  and  rains,  through  which  the  figures 
of  the  heroes  loom  gigantic.  They  are  the  kings 
of  shaggy  boars,  the  dwellers  on  battle's  wing. 
They  joy  in  the  chase,  with  their  gray,  rough- 
eared  dogs  about  them.  They  rush  against  each 
other  in  war  like  the  murmur  of  many  waters, 
clashino-  their  iron  shields  and  shouting  their 
surly  songs  ;  they  remember  the  deeds  of  the 
days  of  old,  and  deaths  wander  like  shadows 
over  their  fiery  souls.  Shadowy  Death  floats 
over  the  hosts,  and  rejoices  at  the  frequent  vic- 
tims. When  a  hero  falls,  his  soul  goes  forth  to 
his  fathers  in  their  stormy  isle,  where  they  pur- 
sue boars  of  mist  along  the  skirts  of  wmds. 
Women,  white-bosomed  and  beautiful,  move 
like  the  music  of  songs  through  these  antique 
tales,  loving  and  beloved  by  heroes  and  kings 
of  heroes. 

Many  of  the  stories  have  for  their  hero  Finn, 
the  son  of  Coul,  the  Fingal  of  the  Scottish 
Ossian.  Around  him  are  his  Feni,  who  stand 
in  the  same  relation  to  him  that  the  twelve 
peers  do  to  Charlemagne,  or  the  Knights  of 
the  Eound  Table  to  Arthur.  Oisin,  the  sweet 
singer;  Oscar,  his  glorious  son,  the  Roland  of 
the  Feni ;  Dermat,  of  whom  it  might  be  said, 


THE  LEGENDS.  17 

as  of  Malory's  Launcelot,  that  he  was  "the 
truest  lover  of  a  sinful  man  that  ever  loved 
woman ;"  Dering,  the  beloved  of  Finn,  and 
Kylta,  the  leader  of  the  Clan  Ronan ;  Conan, 
the  comic  glutton,  of  craven  spirit  and  bitter 
tongue,  a  more  grotesque.  Thersites ;  Fergus 
Finnvel,  the  warrior  poet,  reminding  one  of 
the  Fiddler  Knight  in  the  "  Niebelungen  Lied  ;" 
Ligna,  the  switt-footed ;  Gaul,  the  leader  of 
the  Clan  Morna,  whose  enmity  to  the  Clan  Bas- 
kin  made  the  battle  of  Gawra  the  Roncesvalles 
of  the  Feni.  These  are  all  heroes,  going 
through  all  dangers,  ever  ready  to  do  and  to 
suffer  bravely,  battling  with  all  the  powers  of 
darkness,  loyal  to  each  other,  tender  and  cour- 
teous with  women,  gallant  and  goodly  men, 
models  of  an  early  chivalry.  Nor  are  Finn's 
famous  dogs  to  be  forgotten — Brann  and  Sko- 
lan,  the  companions  of  all  his  huntings  and  all 
his  dangers. 

Finn  himself  is  a  marvellous  figure.  In  his 
youth  he,  like  Theseus,  destro^^ed  all  sorts  of 
fearful  monsters.  He  had  also  the  privilege  on 
occasion  of  knowing:  the  future.  His  hair  was 
gray  through  enchantment  long  before  old  age 
had  clawed  him  in  its  clutch.  Two  fair  sisters 
had  loved  him,  and  one  of  them  said  to  the 
other  that  she  could  never  love  a  man  with 
gray  hair.  Then  the  other  sister,  despairing 
of  winning  Finn  herself,  lured  him  into  an  en- 
chanted pool,  which  turned  him  into  a  withered 
old  man.  The  angry  Feni  forced  her  to  re- 
store to  their  leader  his  youth,  but  his  hair  re- 
mained gray  always. 

The  people  of  Lochlann,  in  the  north  of  Eu- 
rope, invaded  Ireland  with  a  mighty  fleet,  but 
were  wholly  routed  by  the  Feni  under  Finn,  in 


18       A  SHOUT  HlSTOn  Y  OF  IRELAND. 

a  battle  in  which  Oscar,  the  son  of  Oisin,  greatly 
distinguished  himself.  The  enemy  were  routed 
with  great  slaughter,  their  king  was  slain,  and 
his  young  son,  Midac,  was  taken  prisoner. 
Finn  brought  up  Midac  in  the  ranks  of  the 
Feni,  and  treated  him  like  a  comrade ;  but 
Midac  was  always  meditating  revenge.  At 
last,  after  fourteen  years,  Midac  induced  Sinsar 
of  Greece  and  the  Three  Kings  of  the  Torrent 
to  come  secretly  to  Ireland  with  a  mighty  host, 
and  they  waited  in  a  palace  in  an  island  of  the 
Shannon,  below  where  Limerick  now  is.  Then 
Midac  lured  Finn,  and  many  of  the  bravest  of 
the  Feni,  who  were  on  a  hunting  excursion, 
into  a  dwelling  of  his,  the  Palace  of  the  Quicken 
Trees,  as  the  mountain-ashes  were  called.  The 
palace  was  enchanted,  and  once  in  it  the  heroes 
found  themselves  unable  to  get  out,  or  even  to 
i^oVe.  So  they  set  themselves  to  sing,  in  slow 
union,  the  Dord-Fian,  the  war-song  of  their 
race,  while  waiting  death.  But  the  party  of 
Feni  whom  Finn  had  left  behind  him  when  he 
went  to  the  Palace  of  the  Quicken  Trees  began 
to  grow  anxious,  and  Ficna,  Finn's  son,  and 
Innsa,  his  foster-brother,  set  out  to  look  for 
them.  When  the  pair  came  near  the  Palace  of 
the  Quicken  Trees  they  heard  the  strains  of 
the  Dord-Fian ;  so  they  came  close,  and  Finn 
heard  them,  and  calling  out,  told  them  how  he 
and  his  companions  were  trapped  and  waiting 
death,  and  that  nothing  could  free  them  from 
enchantment  but  the  blood  of  the  Three  Kings 
of  the  Torrent.  Luckily  for  Finn,  the  only 
way  to  get  to  the  Palace  of  the  Quicken  Trees 
from  the  palace  of  the  island,  where  Midac  and 
the  foreigners  were,  lay  over  a  narrow  ford, 
where  *jne  man  might  well  keep  a  thousand  at 


THE  LEGENDS.  19 

stand.  This  ford  Fiona  and  Innsa  defended 
against  desperate  odds  for  long  enougli.  Inn.^a 
was  first  slain,  and  Fiona  is  engaged  in  a  de  - 
perate  struggle  with  Midao,  when  Dermat  ap- 
pears on  the  soene.  The  Feni  who  were  at  tlu^ 
hill  were  growing  impatient  for  the  return  of 
Fiona  and  Innsa,  so  Oisin  sent  Dermat  and 
Fatha  to  look  for  them.  As  they  api)roaohed 
the  Palaoe  of  the  Quicken  Trees  they  heard  the 
noise  of  fighting  at  the  ford.  Then  they  ran 
like  the  wind  to  the  hill-brow  over  the  river, 
and  looking  across  in  the  dim  moonlight,  saw 
the  whole  ford  heaped  with  the  bodies  of  the 
slain,  and  Fiona  and  Midao  fighting  to  the 
death.  Dermat  hurled  his  spear  and  pierced 
Midac,  who  struck  Fiona  dead,  and  fell  dead 
himself.  Then  Dermat  and  Fatha  defendeil 
the  ford  asrainst  reinforcements  of  foreijrner^-, 
and  Dermat  soon  killed  the  Three  Kina:s  of  the 
Torrent,  and  undid  the  spell  that  held  Finn  and 
his  friends.  Then  all  the  Feni  came  together, 
and  the  foreigners  were  routed  with  great 
slaughter ;  the  King  of  Greece  and  his  son  were 
both  slain,  and  the  remnant  of  the  enemy  fled 
to  their  ships  in  confusion  and  sailed  away. 

The  friendship  of  Dermat  and  Finn  was  un- 
fortunately broken  for  a  woman's  sake.  Finn 
sought  the  daughter  of  Cormac  Mac  Art,  the 
beautiful  Grania,  in  marriage,  but  the  beautiful 
Grania  had  long  loved  the  fair-faced  Dermat,  in 
secret.  \Yhen  she  saw  herself  about  to  be 
wedded  to  Finn,  no  longer  a  young  man,  she 
told  her  love  to  Dermat,  and  besought  him  to 
carry  her  away  from  Finn.  At  first,  Dennat, 
loyal  to  his  king,  refused,  though  he  was,  in- 
deed, deeply  in  love  with  the  beautiful  Grania  ; 
but  Grania  placed  him  under  "gesa,"  a  kind  of 


20        A  SHOUT  HISTOR  Y  OF  IRELAND. 

mysterious  command  which  heroes  were  sup- 
posed never  to  disobey,  to  marry  her  and  carry 
her  off.  Dermat,  in  despair,  consulted  with 
his  bravest  comrades,  with  Kylta,  and  Oscar, 
and  Dering,  and  Oisin  himself,  and  all  agreed 
that  Finn  would  never  forgive  him,  but  that  he 
was  bound  to  <io  with  Grania  and  take  the  risk. 
So  go  lie  did,  and  tied  with  her  far  from  the 
court  of  King  Cormac.  But  great,  indeed,  was 
the  wrath  of  Finn,  and  for  long  after  he  pur- 
sued Dermat  and  Grania  from  place  to  place, 
always  seeking  to  have  Dermat  killed,  and  al- 
ways failing,  owing  to  the  skill  of  Dermat.  All 
the  synn)athy  of  the  Feni  Avent  with  Dermat, 
and  not  with  Finn,  A  cry  beautifully  the  old 
story  celebrates  the  love  of  Demiat  and  Grania, 
and  the  gallant  deeds  Dermat  did  for  her  sake. 
At  last,  weary  of  the  j)ursuit,  Finn  consented 
to  pardon  Dermat,  but  in  his  heart  he  always 
cherished  hatred  against  him,  and  when  Dermat 
was  wounded  to  death  by  a  boar,  Finn  refused 
him  the  drink  of  water  which,  from  his  hand, 
would  prove  a  cure.  So  Dermat  died,  to  the 
great  sorrow  and  anger  of  all  the  Feni.  The 
stor}'  is  one  of  the  most  l)eautiful,  as  it  is  the 
saddest,  of  the  old  Irish  legends. 

Oisin,  the  last  of  the  Feni,  is  said  to  have 
outlived  all  his  companions  by  many  centuries, 
and  to  have  told  of  them  and  their  deeds  to  St. 
Patrick.  He  had  married  a  beautiful  girl,  who 
came  to  wed  him  from  a  country  across  the  sea, 
called  Tirnanoge,  and  there  he  dwelt,  as  he 
thought,  for  three,  but  as  it  proved,  for  three 
hundred,  years.  At  the  end  of  that  time  there 
came  on  him  a  great  lonjyino:  to  see  Erin  again, 
and  after  nmch  entreaty  his  fair  wife  allowed 
him  to  return,  on  the  one   condition  that  he 


CHRIS  TIA  NITY.  21 

never  dismounted  from  a  white  steed  which  she 
gave  him.  When  he  got  to  Ireland  he  found 
that  the  Feni  had  k)ng  passed  away,  and  that 
only  the  distant  fame  of  them  lingered  in  men's 
minds.  Of  course  he  dismounts  from  the 
horse — how  many  fairy  tales  would  have  ended 
happily  if  their  heroes  had  only  done  as  they 
were  told ! — and  the  horse  straightway  flies 
away,  and  then  the  curse  of  his  old  age  comes 
upon  Oisin,  who  falls  to  the  ground  an  old, 
withered,  ])lind  man,  doomed  nevet"  again  to  go 
back  to  Tirnanoge  and  his  fair  wife-and  his  im- 
mort:U  youth.  St.  Patrick  was  now  in  Ireland, 
and  often  spf)ke  with  Oisin,  who  nevei'  tired  of 
tellinfj  of  the  heroes  of  his  youth,  and  wonder- 
ing  that  deatli  could  ever  have  laid  hands  upon 
their  bright  1)eauty.  Bitterly  he  complained  of 
the  sound  of  the  Christian  bell,  and  the  hymns 
of  the  Christian  clerics,  which  had  enchanted 
and  destroyed  the  Feni.  "  There  is  no  iov^  in 
your  straight  cells,"  Oisin  wails.  "  There  are 
no  women  among  you,  no  cheerful  music ;"  and 
he  laments  for  tlie  joys  of  his  youth,  the  songs 
of  the  black])irds,  the  sound  of  the  wind,  the 
cry  of  the  hounds  let  loose,  the  wash  of  water 
against  the  sides  of  ships,  and  the  clash  of  arms, 
and  the  sweet  voices  of  his  youth's  compeers. 


CHAPTEE II. 

CHRISTIANITY. 

The  authorities  for  all  this  wonderful  fanci- 
ful legend,  for  all  this  pom[)Ous  record  of  vision- 
!iry  kings  and  heroes,  are  to  be  found  in  the 
ancient  Irish  manuscripts,  in  the  Ossianic  songs, 


22        A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 

in  the  annals  of  Tighernach,  of  Ulster,  of  Inis 
MacNerinn,  of  Innisfallen,  andof  Boyle,  in  the 
"  Chronicum  Scotorum,"  the  books  of  Leinster 
and  of  Ballymote,  the  Yellow  Book  of  Lecain, 
and  the  famous  Annals  of  the  Four  Masters, 
which  Michael  O'Clerigh,  the  poor  friar  of  the 
Order  of  St.  Francis,  compiled  for  the  glory  of 
God  and  the  honor  of  Ireland.     They  are  in- 
ter[)reted  and  made  accessible  to  us  by  scholars 
and  writers  like  O' Curry,  and  Ferguson,  and 
Mr.  P.  W.  Joyce,  and  Mr.  Standish  O'Grady. 
These  and  others  have  translated  enough   to 
show  that  the  Irish  manuscripts  enclose  a  store 
of  romantic  records  and  heroic  tales  that  will 
bear  comparison  well  with  the  legends  and  the 
folk-lore  of  any  other  country.     There  is  yet 
much  to  do  in  the  way  of  translating  and  pop- 
ularizing these  old  Irish  legends,  and   it  may 
well  be  hoped  and  believed  that  Irish  scholar- 
ship will  prove  itself  equal  to  the  task.     But 
these  antique  tales  are  not  history.     We  can- 
not even  say  whether  they  have   an  historical 
basis.     It  matters  very  little.     They  are  beau- 
tiful legends,  in  any  case,  and,  like  the  tale  of 
the  Trojan  AVar,  and  the  records  of  the  Seven 
Kings  of  Kome,  they  may  be  believed  or  not, 
according  to  the  spirit  of  their  student.     It  is 
more  probable  than  not  that  they  have  a  founda- 
tion of  truth.     Recent  discoveries  in  the  Troad 
liave  given  an  historical  position  to  the  siege  of 
Trov  ;  and  the  Irish  chronicles  have  no  worse 
claim  to  respect,   as  historic  documents,  than 
the  rhapsodies   of  the    Homeric    singer.     But 
modern  historians  prefer  to  leave  the  Tuatha  de 
Danann  and  the  Milesians  undisturbed  in  their 
sliadowy  kingdom,  and  content  themselves  with 
suggesting  that  Ireland  was  at  first  inhabited  by 


CHRISTIANITY.  2S' 

a  Turanian  race,  and  that  there  were  Celtic  and 
Teutonic  immigrations. 

The  social  organization  of  pre-Christian  Ire- 
land shows  many  remarkable  signs  of  civiliza- 
tion, especially  in  its  treatment  of  women,  who 
were  invested  with  a  respect  and  dignity  not 
common  in  the  early  history  of  races.  In  the 
legends,  women  receive  always  from  men  a  ten- 
der and  gracious  submission  that  rivals  the 
chivalry  of  the  Arthurian  romances  ;  and  there 
is  every  reason  to  believe  that  this  was  not  con- 
fined to  legend.  The  married  woman  was  re- 
garded as  the  equal  of  her  husband  no  less 
than  if  she  had  lived  in  Rome,  and  repeated 
on  her  wedding-day  the  famous  formula,  "  Ubi 
tu  Caius  ego  Caia."  The  religion  seems  to 
have  been  a  form  of  sun-worship,  regulated  by 
Druids,  and  not,  it  is  said — ^though  this  is 
strongly  contested — unaccompanied  with  hu- 
man sacrifices.  The  people  were  divided  in- 
to septs,  composed  of  families  bearing  the 
name  of  their  founder.  Tlie  headman  of  each 
family  served  the  chief  of  the  sept,  and  each 
septal  king  in  his  turn  recognized  the  authority 
of  the  Ard-Righ,  or  chief  king.  All  chieftain- 
ships, and  the  offices  of  Druid  and  of  Brehon, 
or  lawgiver,  were  elective.  During  the  life  of 
each  chief,  his  successor,  called  the  "Tanist," 
was  chosen  from  the  same  family.  Land  was 
held  by  each  sept  in  common,  without  any  feu- 
dal condition,  and  primogeniture  was  unknown. 
Legitimate  or  illegitimate  sons  were  partners 
with  their  father,  and  after  his  death  took  equal 
shares  of  his  holding.  The  Brehon  criminal 
laws  punished  almost  every  offence  by  more  or 
less  heavy  fines.  Agriculture  was  in  its  infancy. 
Wealth  lay  in  cattle,  pigs,  sheep,  and  horses. 


24       A  SffOR  T  SISTOB  Y  OP  IRELAND. 

Ore  and  slaves  were  exported  to  the  Mediter- 
ranean countries  from  the  earliest  times.  The 
people  dwelt  in  wattled  houses,  and  their  pal- 
aces were  probably  only  of  painted  wood  built 
on  dyked  and  palisaded  hills  ;  but  they  could 
build  stronir  fortresses  and  great  sepulchral 
chambers,  and  raise  vast  cromlechs  over  their 
warrior  dead.  AMiether  the  round  towers 
which  are  still  the  wonder  of  many  parts  of  Ire- 
land were  built  by  them  or  by  the  early  Chris- 
tians, and  for  what  purpose,  is  still  a  subject  of 
fierce  controversy  among  archaeologists.  Dio- 
dorus  Siculus  would  seem  to  refer  to  them  in  a 
passage  in  which  he  speaks  of  an  island  of  the 
size  of  Sicily,  in  the  ocean  over  against  Gaul, 
to  the  north,  whose  people  were  said  to  have  a 
great  affection  for  the  Greeks  from  old  times, 
and  to  build  curious  temples  of  round  form. 
Whether  they  built  the  round  towers  or  no,  the 
early  Irish  were  skilled  in  the  working  of  gold 
ornaments,  and  in  the  manufacture  of  primitive 
weapons.  The}^  seem  to  have  known  the  art 
of  writing  early,  and  to  have  had  a  strange  al- 
phabet of  their  own,  called  Ogham,  from  a 
shadowy  King  Oghma,  who  was  supposed  to 
have  invented  it.  It  was  written  by  cutting 
notches  in  wood  and  stone,  and  there  has  been 
no  small  discussion  over  the  reading  of  it. 

Authentic  history  begins  with  St.  Patrick. 
Patrick  had  been  carried  as  a  slave  from  Gaul 
to  Erin  in  his  youth.  He  escaped  to  Rome  and 
rose  high  in  the  Christian  Church.  But  his 
heart  was  stirred  with  pity  for  his  land  of  bond- 
age, and  about  432  he  returned  to  Ireland,  in- 
spired by  the  hope  of  converting  the  country. 
He  was  not  the  first.  Palladius  had  tried  to 
convert  pagan  lerne  already,   but  where  Pal- 


CHRISTIANITY.  25 

ladius  failed,  Patrick  succeeded,  and  the  complete 
conversion  of  Ireland  is  one  of  the  most  splen- 
did triumphs  of  the  early  Church.  Wherever 
the  saint  went,  conviction  and  conversion  fol- 
lowed. He  had  dreamed  a  strange  dream 
while  in  Rome,  in  which  an  angel  appeared  to 
him,  bearing  a  scroll,  with  the  superscription, 
"  The  voice  of  the  Irish."  The  voice  of  the 
Irish  had  called  him,  and  the  ears  of  the  Irish 
were  ready  to  accept  his  teaching :  king  after 
king,  chieftain  after  chieftain,  abandoned  the 
worship  of  their  ancient  gods  to  become  the 
servants  of  Christ.  For  more  than  sixty  years 
Patrick  wrestled  with  the  old  gods  in  Ireland 
and  overthrew  them.  He  had  found  Ireland 
pagan,  but  when  he  died  and  gave 

"  His  body  to  that  pleasant  country's  earth. 
And  his  pure  soul  unto  his  captain  Christ, 
Under  whose  colors  he  had  fought  so  long," 

the  spirit  of  Christianity  was  over  the  island, 
and  the  power  of  the  old  gods  was  gone  for- 
ever. He  was  buried  in  Saul,  in  the  County 
of  Down,  but  his  spirit  lived  in  the  souls  of 
his  followers.  Long  after  Patrick  had  been 
laid  to  rest,  his  disciples  carried  the  cross  of 
Christ  to  the  gaunt  Scottish  highlands,  the  lonely 
German  pine-forests,  the  savage  Gaulish  set- 
tlements, to  Britain,  and  the  wild  islands  of 
the  northern  seas.  The  Irish  monks  wandered 
into  the  waste  places  of  Ireland,  and  noble 
monasteries — the  homes  of  religion  and  of 
learning — sprang  up  wherever  they  set  their  , 
feet.  The  fathers  of  the  Irish  Church  were 
listened  to  with  reverence  in  the  court  of 
Charlemagne  and  in  the  Roman  basilicas ;  and 
foreign  ecclesiastics  eagerly  visited  the  homes  >- 


26        A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 

of  these  men — the  monasteries  famous  for  their 
learning,  their  libraries,  and  their  secure  peace. 
The,  island  of  the  Sun-god  had  become  the 
island  of  Saints.  To  Ireland  belong  St.  Colum- 
ban,  the  reformer  of  the  Ciauls  ;  St.  Columb- 
-kill,  the  " Dove  of  the  Cell,"  whose  name  has 
maide lona  holy  ground  ;  St.  Foelan  ;  St.  Killian, 
the  apostle  of  Franconia  ;  St.  Aidan  ;  St.  Gall, 
the  converter  of  Helvetia ;  and  St.  Boniface. 
One  hundred  and  fifty-five  Irish  saints  are  ven- 

"  erated  in  the  churches  of  Germany,  forty-five 
iij  Gaul,  thirty  in  Belgium,  thirteen  in  Italy, 
and  eight  in  Scandinavia.  For  a  long  time  all 
Christendom  looked  upon  Ireland  as  the  favor- 
ite home  of  religion  and  of  wisdom.  Mont- 
alembert,  in  his  great  history  of  "  The  Monks  of 
the  West,"  has  given  a  glowing  account  of  the 
civilization  and  the  culture  of  the  Irish  monas- 
teries. There  the  arts  were  practised — music, 
architecture,  and  the  working  of  metals.  There 
the  languages  of  Greece  and  Eome  were  studied 
with  the  passionate  zeal  which  afterw^ards  dis- 
tinguished the  Humanistic  scholars  of  the  re- 
vival of  learning.  The  Irish  monastic  scholars 
carried  their  love  for  Greek  so  far  that  they 
even  wrote  the  Latin  of  the  Church  books  in 
the  beloved  Hellenic  characters — and  as  we  read 
we  are  reminded  again  of  the  old  tradition  of 
Greek  descent — while,  curiously  enough,  one  of 

•  the  oldest  manuscripts  of  Horace  in  existence, 
that  in  the  library  of  Berne,  is  written  in  Celtic 
characters,  with  notes  and  commentaries  in  the 
Irish  language.  It  is  worthy  of  remark  that  Mont- 
alembert  says,  that  of  all  nations  the  Anglo- 
Saxons  derived  most  profit  from  the  teaching 
of  the  Irish  schools,  and  that  Alfred  of  Eng- 
land received  his  education  in  an  Irish  university. 


CBBISTIANITY.  27 

With  the  lapse  of  time,  however,  and  the 
disorders  that  came  over  the  country  during  the 
struggles  with  the  Danes,  the  organization  of 
the  Church  suffered  severely.  In  the  twelfth 
century  the  irregularities  that  had  crept  into 
the  Irish  Church  were  brought  before  the  notice 
of  the  Roman  court.  A  synod,  held  at  Kells, 
A.  D.  1152,  under  the  papal  legate  Paparo, 
formally  incorporated  the  Irish  Church  into  the 
ecclesiastical  system  of  Rome.  The  metropol- 
itan sees  of  Armagh,  Cashel,  Dublin,  and  Tuam 
were  created,  with  their  suffragan  sees,  under 
the  primacy  of  the  Archbishop  of  Armagh. 

Towards  the  end  of  the  eighth  century  the 
Danes  made  their  first  descent  upon  Ireland, 
and  for  a  time  established  themselves  in  the 
country,  expending  their  fiercest  fury  upon  the 
Church  of  the  West,  and  driving  the  Irish 
scholars  to  carry  their  culture  and  their  philos- 
ophy to  the  great  cities  of  the  European  con- 
tinent. The  Irish  chiefs,  divided  among  them- 
selves, were  unable  to  oppose  a  common  front 
to  the  enemy,  and  for  more  than  a  century  the 
sea-kings  held  Ireland  in  subjection.  At  length 
a  man  arose  who  was  more  than  a  match  for 
the  sea-kings.  Brian  Boroihme,  brother  of  the 
King  of  Munster,  raised  an  army  against  the 
Danes  in  ,968,  thoroughly  defeated  them,  and 
reduced  them  to  the  condition  of  quiet  dwellers 
in  the  seaport  towns.  But  the  master-spirit 
that  the  troublous  time  had  conjured  up  was 
not  content  to  remain  the  conqueror  of  the 
Danes  alone.  He  was  determined  to  become 
the  sovereign  of  all  Ireland.  It  was  sheer 
usurpation,  and  many  of  the  Irish  chiefs  op- 
posed Brian  ;  but  he  soon  overcame  their  resis- 
tance, and  in  1001  he  was  acknowledged  as  King 


28       A  SHOUT  HISTOR  Y  OF  IRELA ND. 

of  all  Ireland.  He  made  a  just  and  wise  king, 
and  for  twelve  years  refgned  in  triumph  and  in 
pea^.  Then  the  Danes  in  Ireland,  began  to 
pluck  up  heart  again.  They  sent  for  help  to 
their  kinsmen  over  sea,  and  the  Vikings  came 
across  the  Swan's  Bath  with  a  mighty  fleet,  and 
made  war  upon  Brian.  Brian  was  an  old  man 
now,  hut  as  fierce  and  In-ave  and  skilful  as  ever. 
He  raised  up  all  his  power  to  meet  the  Danes, 
and  completely  defeated  them  after  a  bloody 
struggle,  at  Clontarf,  on  Good  Friday,  1014. 
Their  bravest  chiefs  were  slain,  and  their  spir- 
its sent  to  the  Hall  of  Odin  to  drink  ale  with 
the  goddesses  of  death,  while  all  the  hawks  of 
heaven  mourned  for  them.  But  the  victorious 
Irish  had  to  bewail  their  king,  who,  owing  to 
the  neijliffence  of  his  jxuards,  was  killed  in  his 
tent  towards  the  end  of  the  fight  by  the  Danish 
leader.  This  great  defeat  of  the  Danes  put  an 
end  to  anv  further  dreams  of  a  Danish  invasion 
of  Ireland,  though  it  did  not  by  any  means  de- 
stroy the  influence  that  the  Danes  had  already 
acquired  in  the  island.  They  still  held  their 
own  in  the  great  seaport  towns,  and  carried  on 
fierce  feuds  with  the  native  tril)es,  and  in  the 
slow  processes  of  time  became  absorbed  into 
and  united  with  them.  The  death  of  Brian  had 
a  disastrous  effect  upon  the  condition  of  Ire- 
land. The  provinces  that  he  had  subjugated 
reasserted  their  independence  ;  but  his  usurpa- 
tion had  shattered  the  suj)remacy  of  the  old 
royal  race,  and  the  history  of  Ireland  until  the 
middle  of  the  twelfth  centurj'  is  merely  a  mel- 
ancholy succession  of  ci^  il  wars  and  struggles 
for  the  crown,  u})on  which  it  would  be  alike 
painful  and  profitless  to  dwell. 


The  NORMAN  CONQ  VEST.  29 

CHAPTER  m. 

THE    NORMAN    CONQUEST. 

Ireland  was  now  divided  into  four  confedera- 
tions of  tribes.  The  O'Xeils  held  Ulidia,  which 
is  now  called  Ulster ;  the  O'Connors  Conacia, 
or  Connaught ;  the  O'Briens  and  theM'Carthys 
Mononia,  or  Munster ;  and  the  Macmurroughs 
Lagenia,  or  Leinster — all  under  the  paramount 
but  often-disputed  rule  of  a  branch  of  the  Uls- 
ter O'Neils.  The  royal  demense  of  Meath, 
the  appanage  of  the  Ulster  family,  which  in- 
cluded Westmeath,  Longford,  Und  a  part  of 
King's  County,  was  sometimes  counted  a  fifth 
kingdom. 

In  the  wild  north,  O'Neil,  O'Donnel,  O'Kane, 
O'Hara,  O'Sheel,  O'Carroll,  were  mighty 
names.  On  the  northernmost  peninsula,  where 
the  Atlantic  runs  into  Lough  Foyle  and  Lough 
Swilly,  O'Dogherty  reigned  supreme.  In  Con- 
naught,  O'Rourke,  O'Reilly,  O'Kelly,  O'Fla- 
herty,  O'Malley,  O'Dowd,  were  lords.  In 
Meath  and  Leinster,  MacGeogeghan,  O'Farrell, 
O'Connor,  O' Moore,  O'Brennan,  Macmurrough 
ruled.  In  Munster,  by  the  western  shore,  Mac- 
Carthy  More  held  sway.  MacCarthy  Reagh 
swayed  the  south,  by  the  pleasant  waters  of 
Cork  Bay.  O'Sullivan  Beare  was  lord  of  the 
fair  promontory  between  Bantry  Bay  and  Ken- 
mare  River.  O'Mahony  reigned  by  roaring 
Water  Bay.  O'Donoghue  was  chieftain  by  the 
haunted  Killarney  Lakes.  MacMahon  ruled 
north  of  the  Shannon.  O'Loglin  looked  on 
Gal  way  Bay. 

All  Ireland,  with  the  exception  of  a  few  sea- 
port towns  where  the  Danes  had  settled,  was  in 


30        A  SltOltT  mSTonY  OP  m^LAND. 

the  hands  of  Irish  chiefs  of  old  descent  and 
famous  lineage.  They  quarrelled  among  them- 
selves as  readily  and  as  fiercely  as  if  they  had 
been  the  heads  of  so  many  Greek  states.  The 
Danes  had  been  their  Persians ;  their  Romans 
w  ere  now  to  come.  •' 

The  whole  story  of  Irish  subjugation  and  its 
seven  centuries  of  successive  struffgles  begins 
with  the  carrying-oft'   of  Devorgilla,  wife    of 
Tieman   O'Korke,   of  Brefny,  by  a  dissolute, 
brutal    giant    some    sixty    years    old — Dermot 
Macmurrou2:h,  Kinix  of  Leinster.     We  have  a 
curious  picture  of  him  preserved  in  the  writings 
of  Giraldus  Cambrensis,  who  knew  him,  and 
who  was  the  first  historian  of  the  Irish  invasion. 
"  Dermot  was  a  man  of  tall  stature  and  great 
body ;  a  valiant  and  bold  warrior  in  his  nation. 
By  constant  halloaing  and  crying  out  his  voice 
had  become    hoarse.     He  chose  to   be    feared 
rather  than  loved  ;  oppressed- his  nobility  great- 
ly, but   greatly   sujjported    and    advanced    the 
poor  and  weak.     To  his  own  kindred  he  was 
I'ough  and  grievous,  and   hatefid  to  strangers ; 
he  would  be  against  all  men,  and  all  men  were 
against  him."     Such  was  the  man  who  found 
the  fair  wife  of  the  Lord  of  Brefnv  a  willing 
victim.     Alexander  the  Great  was  pleased  to 
fancv    that    in    ravao-in<j   the    countries   of  the 
Great  King  he  was  still  avenging  the  ancient 
(piarrel  for  the  rape  of  Helen.     But  Helen  was 
not  more  fatal  to    Greeks  and  Easterns  than 
Devorgilla,  Erin's  Helen,  proved  to  the  neigh- 
boring  islands  that  lie  along  the    Irish    Sea. 
Throuo'h  ages  of  bloodshed  and  slaughter  her 
country  has  indeed  bled  for  her  shame.     There 
is  a  grim  ironic  mockery  in  the  thought  that 
two  nations  have  been  set  for  centuries  in  the 


THE  NORMAN  CONQUEST.  31 

bitterest  hatred  by  the  loves  of  a  lustful  sav- 
asre  and  an  unfaithful  wife.  One  miirht  well 
paraphrase  the  words  of  Shakespeare's  Dionied 
in  "  Troilus  and  Cressida,"  and,  say  that  "  for 
every  false  drop  in  her  bawdy  veins  an  English 
life  hath  sunk  ;  for  every  scruple  of  her  contami- 
nated carrion  weight  an  Irishman  been  slain." 
The  Lord  of  Brefny  made  war  upon  his  be- 
trayer ;  Rory  O'Connor,  the  last  king  of  Ireland 
espoused  O'Rorke's  cause,  and  Dermot  fled  the 
country.  He  hastened  to  Aquitaine,  where 
Henry  II.  w^as  then  staying,  and  did  him  hom- 
age. Pope  Adrian  IV.,  known  to  England  as 
Nicholas  Breakspere,  the  only  Englishman  who 
ever  sat  in  the  seat  of  St.  Peter,  had  given 
Henry  II.  a  bull  of  authority  over  Ireland  sonio 
years  before,  authority  which  Henry  had  not 
yet  seen  tit  to  exercise.  Dermot's  quarrel  was 
Henry's  opportunity.  He  allowed  the  treach- 
erous fugitive  to  shark  up  a  list  of  lawless  res- 
olutes  from  among  the  Norman  barons  in  Wales, 
headed  by  Richard  de  Clare,  Earl  Pembroke, 
called  "  Strong] )o\v."  Ireland  was  invaded, 
Wexford  seized,  Water  ford  taken  and  sacked, 
and  Eva,  Dermot's  daughter,  married  to  Strong- 
bow,  as  a  further  ])ond  Ijetween  the  lord  of 
Leinster  and  tlie  Norman  adventurer.  The  su- 
periority of  the  Norman  arms  and  armor  im- 
pressed the  Irish  chiefs  and  soldiery  as  the 
iron  of  Charlemagne's  legions  impressed  the 
Huns.  The  Normans  made  a  brave  show, 
lapped  in  steel,  with  their  pointed  helms  arfd 
shields,  their  surcoats  gleaming  with  the  or  and 
CD-gent,  gules  and  azure  of  their  heraldic  bear- 
ings, their  powerful  weapons,  and  their  huge 
war-horses.  Beneath  their  floating  pennons 
came   their  well-trained,  well-armed    soldiers. 


32        A  SHOUT  HISTOR  Y  OF  IRELAND. 

skilled  to  shoot  with  long-bow  and  cross-bow, 
well  su}){)lied  with  all  the  implements  fit  for  the 
taking  of  cities  that  Roman  ingenuity  had  de- 
vised and  Norman  craft  perfected.  The  Irish 
galloglasses  and  kerns  opposed  to  them,  if  not 
,  wholly  unfamiliar  with  the  use  of  mail,  sel- 
dom, indeed,  used  it,  and  fought  their  fiercest, 
protected  alone  by  the  shirts  of  saflron-dye  in 
which  they  delighted,  while  their  weapons  were 
in  every  res})ect  inferior  to  those  of  the  invaders. 
Naturally,  the  Normans  were  at  first  tri- 
um[)hant  everywhere.  They  swarmed  over  the 
country,  pushing  their  strange  names  and 
strange  ways  into  the  homes  of  the  time-hon- 
ored septs.  I)e  Burgo  in  Connaught,  Fitz- 
Maurice  and  FitzGerald  in  Kerry,  in  the  land 
of  the  MacCarthy  jVIore ;  De  Cogan,  Fitz- 
Stephen,  and  De  la  Poer  along  the  southern 
coast ;  De  Lacy  in  the  north  ;  all  the  cloud  of 
De  Grandisons,  and  De  Montmorencies,  and 
De  Courcies,  and  Mandevilles,  and  FitzEus- 
taces,  who  settled  along  the  eastern  coasts,  and 
pushed  their  way  inland — these  were  to  be  the 
new  masters  of  men  whose  hearts  were  given 
in  allegiance  to  the  lords  of  the  O  and  of  the 
Mac. 

But  though  the  first  flush  of  victory  rested 
with  the  Normans,  their  hold  over  the  country 
was  for  some  time  uncertain.  Dermot,  whose 
alliance  was  of  great  im})ortance  to  the  inva- 
ders, died  suddenlv  a  loatlisome  death.  Henrv 
seemed  little  inclined  to  lend  his  strength  to 
the  bold  barons,  wliose  successes  made  him 
jealous  for  his  own  authority  over  the  island. 
He  e^en  ordered  Strongbow  to  leave  Ireland,  a 
command  that  it  was  difiicult  to  obey,  for  the 
Irish  had  plucked  up  heart  of  grace  to  turn 


THE  NORMAN  CO XqUEST.  33 

upon  their  invaders,  and  were  harassing  th'ean 
very  effectually.  They  were  reinforced,  too, 
by  their  old  enemies  the  Danes,  wliose  seaport, 
settlements  the  Xormans  had  seized  u})on  with 
iscant  courtesy,  and  ])etween  the  two  tlie  advent- 
urers were  in  a  bad  way.  Stronijbow  took  the 
oi)portunity  of  a  momentary  trium[)h  of  the 
Norman  arms  to  return  to  Enaland  and  make 
his  peace  with  his  jealous  monarcli.  Henry 
pardoned  him  his  delayed  submission,  and  im- 
mediately secured  the  Norman  arasp  on  Ireland 
by  leading  a  large  army  across  the  Irish  Sea  on 
a  "  Veni,  vidi,  vici"  visit,  as  Sir  John  Davies 
called  it,  writing  of  it  some  centuries  later. 

The  armament  overawed  many  of  the  Irisli 
chieftains,  who  seem  to  have  tliought  resistance 
to  the  master  of  such  legions  vain,  and  most  of 
the  Munster  chieftains  came  in  and  swore  al- 
legiance. Rory  O'Connor  held  out  against  the 
king  ;  so  did  the  Ulster  chiefs  ;  but  Henry,"  con- 
tent with  what  he  gained,  for  the  time  let  thein 
alone,  and  proceeded  to  organize  his  new  terri- 
tory. He  divided  it  into  counties,  and  set  u}) 
the  royal  law  courts  of  Bench,  Pleas,  and  Ex- 
chequer in  Dul)lin,  to  afford  the  Norman  set^ 
tiers  the  privileges  of  English  law.  The  na- 
tives were  allowed  to  keep  to'  their  old  Brehon 
laws,  which  dated  from  the  earliest  times,- ana 
were  as  unlike  the  English  i)rocesse&  of  juri> - 
prudence  as  the  Irish  land  system  was  unlike 
the  feudal  system  now  introduced. 

Henry's  stay  in  Ireland  was  abruptly  cut  short 
by  a  summons  to  appear  liefore  the  papal  legates 
in  Normandy  who  were  iii(juiring  into  the  mur-' 
der  of  Becket.  He  left  the  island  never  to  ccmie 
back  to  it  again.  But  he  had  done  nnich  to 
Normanize  the  country  by  making  large  and 


84         A  SHORT  HISTOR  Y  OF  IRELAND. 

wholly  illegal  grants  of  septal  territory  to  his 
followers,  leaving  it  to  them  to  win  and  keep 
these  gifts  as  best  they  could.  With  the  sword 
the  barons  advanced  their  claims,  and  with  the 
sword  the  Irish  chieftains  met  them. 

The  story  of  Ireland  from  the  first  to  the 
second  Richard  is  one  monotonous  record  of 
constant  warfare  between    the  Irish    and    the 
Nonnans,  and  of  incessant  strife  between  the 
rival  Irish  houses.      The  barons    built    great 
castles,  and  lived  in  them  a  life  of  rough  self- 
reliance,  very  like  that  of  the  robber  lords  of 
the  Rhine  provinces  in  later  centuries.     Many 
of  these  domains  were  counties  palatinate,  that 
is  to  say,  their  lords  had  the  privilege  of  mak- 
ing their  own  laws  with  very  little  regard  to  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  crown,   and  with  absolute 
power  of  life  and  death.    They  ruled  the  tenants 
accordingly,   with  a  queer  mixture  of  Brehon 
and  Norman  law,  after  their  own  fashion.     In 
the  Norman  towns,  which  were  gradually  estab- 
lished in  the  country  under  the  protection  of 
some  one  or  other  of  the  great  barons,  the  lan- 
guage   for    a    long    time    was    only  Norman- 
French,  and  the  customs  as  well.       It  was  as  if 
some  town  of    pleasant    Normandy  had   been 
taken  bodily  up  and   transported   to   Ireland, 
with  its  well- wardered  ramparts,  on  which  the 
citizens'  wives  and  daughters  walked  of  quiet 
evenings  in  times  of  peace,  its  busy,  crowded 
streets,  thronged  with  citizens  of  all  trades  and 
crafts,    marching    sometimes    gayly    in    their 
guilds,  and  ready  at  all  times  to    drop   awl    or 
hammer,  nert  or  knife,  and  rush  to  anus  to  at- 
tack or  to  repel  the  Irish  enemy.     For  outside 
the  ramparts  of  these  Norman  towns   on   Irish 
earth,   outside  the  last  bastion  of  the  baron's 


TBS  NOHMAN  CONQUEST.  35 

stronghold,  lay  the  Irish,  a  separate  and  a  hostile 
nation,  ever  attacked,  and  ever  ready  to  attack. 
The  return  of  the  swallow  was  not  surer  in  sum- 
mer than  the  renewed  outbreak  of  strife  between 
Norman  baron  and  Irish  chief  when  once  the 
winter  had  faded  into  spring.  The  baron  took 
to  the  road  like  a  last-century  highwayman  :  he 
swooped  down  upon  the  fields  of  the  Irish  ;  he 
seized  upon  the  stores  that  they  had  placed  in 
their  churches  and  churchyards,  as  was  their 
custom  before  they  took  to  building  castles 
themselves.  The  Irish  retaliated  whenever  and 
wherever  they  could.  For  long  there  was  no 
sort  of  alliance  between  them.  Only  those  who 
belonged  to  the  "five  bloods "*of  the  O'Neils 
of  Ulster,  the  O'Connors  of  Connaught,  the 
O'Briens  of  Thomond,  the  O'Melachlins  of 
Meath,  and  the  Macmurroughs  of  Leinster, 
could  have  audience  in  an  English  court.  The 
killing  of  an  Irishman  or  the  violation  of  an 
Irishwoman  by  an  English  colonist  was  no 
crime. 

Yet,  with  the  slow  advance  of  time  the  Nor- 
man settlers  began  to  succumb  to  Irish  influences . 
The  hostilities  lessened,  the  hatreds  waned. 
The  Norman  barons  began  to  find  peace  better 
than  war,  and  love  fairer  than  feud.  They  took 
to  themselves  wives  from  among;  the  dauijhters 
of  the  Irish  chiefs.  By  degrees  they  aban- 
doned their  knightly  trappings,  their  Norman 
names,  and  their  foreign  speech,  to  adopt  in- 
stead the  Irish  dress,  names,  language,  and  law. 
A  Burke  became  a  M'William,  a  FitzMaurice 
became  a  M'Morice,  and  a  Bermingham  became 
a  M'Yoris.  The  transformed  barons  aspired  to 
be  independent  Irish  chieftains  like  their  new 
allies ;      in    time    they    came     to    be    known 


36       A  SHORT  MIS  TOM  Y  OF  IRELAND. 

as  "more  Irish  than  the  Irish  themselves.' 
The  English  government  ^vitnessed  with 
jeah)us  anger  this  curious  process  of  assimila- 
tion, and  strove  at  intervals  to  stay  its  course. 
A  statute  ])assed  in  1295  prohibited  in  vain  the 
adoi)ti()n  of  the  Irish  garb  by  Norman  settlers. 
The  English  had  not  the  poAver  to  enforce  such 
restrictive  la\\'s  ;  they  had  not  even  the  strength 
to  protect  such  of  the  settlers  as  ^vere  Avilling 
to  abide  by  their  own  Xorman  ways  and  words. 
These  were  forced  in  self-defence  into  associa- 
tion and  alliance  with  the  Irish  chiefs,  who 
were  gradually  regaining  their  control  over  the 
country. 

After  the  English  defeat  at  Bannockburn,  the 
Irish  chiefs  at  once  rose  in  revolt  against  Eng- 
land. Edward  Bruce,  brother  of  the  vic- 
torious Scottisli  king,  came  over  to  Ireland  in 
1315,  and  was  heartily  welcomed,  not  by  the 
native  Irish  alone,  but  by  many  of  the  Anglo- 
Irish  noljles.  Edward  Bruce  was  crowned  as 
king  at  Dundalk,  and  for  a  short  time  the  in- 
surrection carried  all  before  it,  and  the  Analo- 
Irish  lords  who  had  not  joined  the  rebellion 
were  put  to  great  straits  to  defend  themselves. 
The  English  govermnent  made  a  desperate  effort, 
raised  a  laroe  armv  under  Sir  John  de  Berming- 
ham,  which  coin})letely  defeated  the  allied 
Scotch,  Irish,  and  Anglo-Irish  forces  in  a 
battle  near  Dundalk,  in  which  Edward  Bruce 
himself  was  killed.  But  the  victory  was  dearly 
bought.  The  Ic^yal  Anglo-Irish  liad  learned  to 
their  cost  that  they  could  not  count  for  safety 
on  the  protection  of  the  home  government,  and 
that  security  was  more  easily  attained  by  amal- 
gamation with  the  Irish.  The  Irishizing  pro- 
cess went  on  more  vigorously  than  ever.     The 


THE  NORMAN  CONQUEST.  S7 

Conversion  of  Norman  l)arons  into  Irish  chiefs 
with  Irish  names  waxed  day  by  day.  The  con- 
dition of  the  English  settlers  who  remained  un- 
changed in  the  midst  of  such  changes  became 
desperate  indeed. 

Something  had  to  be  done.  In  1356  it  was 
proclaimed  that  no  one  born  in  Ireland  should 
hold  any  of  the  king's  towns  or  castles.  This 
proved  ineffectual,  and  sterner  measures  were 
resorted  to  eleven  years  later,  at  the  Parliament 
held  in  Kilkenny,  in  1367.  The  Norman  Par- 
liament in  Ireland  was  originally  a  council  of 
the  barons,  prelates,  and  the  "faithful;'.'  but  it 
had  grown  with  time  into  greater  importance. 
The  Upper  House  consisted  of  lay  peers,  abbots, 
'priors,  and  bishops;  the  Lower  House  of  the 
knights  of  the  shires  and  burgesses.  Many  of 
the  lay  peers  claimed  and  received  exemption 
from  attendance,  and  the  abbots,  priors,  and 
.;  l)ishops  generally  sent  their  proctors  in  their 
..-places,  till  the  practice  grew  up  of  summoning 
two  proctors  from  each  diocese,  who  sat  with 
the  knights  !ind  burgesses  in  the  Lower  House, 
and  claimed  to  be  memliers  of  the  legislature. 
Most  of  the  shires  were  in  the  hands  of  the  Irish, 
and  returned  no  mem])ers.  Burgesses  were 
summoned  from  a  few  towns,  many  not  being 
elected  by  the  freemen  of  the  city,  but  re- 
ceiving the  ro^'al  writ  personally,  hj  name.  It 
met  at  irregular  intervals,  sometimes  at  Dul)lin, 
sometimes  at  Kilkenny,  and  sometimes  at 
Drogheda,  at  the  summons  of  the  kinix's  lieu- 
tenant,  or  his  deputy. 

The  Parliament  of  Kilkenny'  inflicted  heavy 
penalties  on  all  English  who  adopted  Irish 
names,  speech,  or  customs.  The  Norman  who 
dared  to  marrv  an   Irish  wife   was  to  be  half- 


38       A  SHO  R  T  HIS  TOR  Y  OF  IRE  LA  ND. 

hanged,  shamefully  mutilated,  disembowelled 
alive,  and  forfeit  his  estate.  The  fostering  of 
Norman  with  Irish  children,  and  the  main- 
tenance of  Irish  bards,  were  alike  sternly  pro- 
hibited. But  at  the  time  the  English  govern- 
ment had  not  the  power  to  enforce  these  statutes, 
which  only  served  to  further  exasperate  the 
Irish  and  the  Anglo-Irish. 

liichard  II.  was  in  Ireland  with  a  large  army, 
determined  to  reduce  the  country  to  obedience, 
when  the  news  of  Bolingbroke's  landing  at 
Ravens})urgh  called  him  back  to  his  death.  The 
strugoies  of  the  Houses  of  the  White  and  the 
Ked  Kose  occupied  Ireland  as  well  as  England. 
Anglo-Irish  lords  crossed  the  sea  to  light  for 
York,  and  Lancaster  by  the  side  of  the  King- 
maker or  Clifl'ord  of  Cuml)erland.  In  Ireland 
the  two  greatest  houses  took  opposite  sides. 
The.  Butlers  of  p]ast  Munster,  the  Lords  of 
Ormonde,  who  swayed  Tip})erary  and  Kilkenny, 
plucked  a  sanguine  rose  with  young  Somerset; 
while  the  Geraldines  of  both  the  Desmond  and 
Kildare  branches  loved  no  colors,  and  cropped 
a  pale  and  angry  rose  with  Plantagenet. 

The  story  of  the  House  of  Geraldine  is  one 
of  the  most  romantic  in  all  Irish  history.  The 
(leraldines  were  descended  from  the  two  broth- 
ers Maurice  and  William  Fitzgerald,  who  came 
to  Ireland  at  the  heels  of  Strongbow.  Through 
varying  fortunes — at  one  time  the  whole  house 
was  nearly  exterminated  by  MacCarthy  More — 
they  had  risen  to  a  proud  })osition  of  rule  in  Ire- 
land. They  owned  all  the  broad  lands  from 
Maynooth  to  Lixnaw  ;  their  followers  swarmed 
everywhere,  bearing  a  "(i"  on  their  breast  in 
token  that  they  owed  their  hearts  to  the  Geral- 
dines. 


THE  NORMAN  CONQ  VEST.  39 

Moore  has  made  famous  the  story  of  Thomas, 
the  sixth  earl,  who,  "by  the  Fial's  wave  be- 
nighted, no  star  in  the  sky,"  was  liglited  l)y 
love  to  the  door  of  a  retainer's  cottage.  The 
poet  fancies  that  as  the  chieftain  crossed  the 
threshold,  some  ominous  voice  whispered  that 
there  was  ruin  ])efore  him.  If  lie  loved  he  was 
lost.  Love  and  ruin  did,  indeed,  await  the 
Geraldine  across  the  threshold.  The  retainer 
had  a  beautiful  daughter,  and  ''  love  came  and 
'>rouorht  sorrow  too  soon  in  his  train"  for  Thomas 
.»f  Kildare.  He  married  the  peasant  girl,  and 
vas  outlawed  by  his  stately  family,  and  went  to 
France  witli  his  humble  love,  and  died,  a  poor 
lut  a  happy  man,  at  Rouen,  many  years  later. 

After  Bos  worth  battle  had  placed  Henry  VH. 
m  the  throne  of  Richard  of  Gloucester,  the  new 
<inix  wy-f^  too  busy  with  his  new  kinjrdom  to  "five 
oiuch  thouglit  to  Ireland.  The  English  colony 
«ras  in  a  bad  way  there.  It  was  reduced  to  the 
County  of  Dublin  and  parts  of  Meath,  Loutii, 
^nd  Kildare.  The  greater  part  of  the  island 
was  entirely  in  the  hands  of  Irish  chieftains,  who 
exacted  tribute  from  the  English,  and  scorn- 
fully set  at  naught  the  continued  and  meaning- 
less renewals  of  the  statutes  of  •  Kilkenny. 
Henry  at  lirst  left  Ireland  alone.  He  was  ever 
content  to  leave  the  Geraldine  control  of  the 
country  unquestioned,  although  the  Gcraldines 
had  been  so  defiantly  Yorkist,  and  though  not  a 
few  followers  of  the  house  had  painted  their 
own  white  roses  red  with  their  own  blood  on 
many  an  English  field.  They  were  Yorkist 
still.  When  Lambert  Simnel  came  over  to  Ire- 
land, pretending  to  be  the  son  of  false,  fleet- 
ing, perjured  Clarence,  the  .Geraldines  rallied 
round  him  with  warm  support  and  sympathy. 


40         A  SHOUT  HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 

When  this  image  of  a  king  was  swept  from  the 
throne  to  the  kitchen,  Perkin  Warbeck  took  his 
place,  claimed  to  be  the  Duke  of  York  whom 
Gloucester  had  murdered  in  the  tower,  and  he, 
too,  found  Geraldine  aid  and  maintenance. 
Henry  had  now  learned  something  of  the 
strength  of  Irish  disaffection  in  the  hands  of 
the  Irish  chiefs,  and  prepared  to  crush  it  out 
more  subtly  than  by  the  sword.  We  have  seen 
what  the  Irish  Parliament  was  like  :  a  poor  thing 
enough  in  itself,  but  at  worst  containing  the 
principles  of  a  representative  system.  This 
system  Henry  resolved  to  destroy.  Three  cen- 
turies had  passed  since  the  Norman  banners 
had  first  floated  over  the  Irish  fields,  and  in  all 
that  time  no  attempt  had  been  made  to  force 
the  English  laws  upon  the  Irish  septs,  or  to  in- 
terfere with  the  self-government  of  the  Norman 
settlers.  Now,  in  1494,  Henry  sent  over  Sir 
Edward  Poynings,  as  Lord  Deputy,  with  an 
army  at  his  back,  to  change  altogether  the  rela- 
tionship between  the  two  islands,  Poynings 
summoned  a  Parliament  at  Droffheda,  at  which 
the  famous  measure  known  as  Poynings's  Act 
was  passed.  This  act  established  that  all  Eng- 
lish laws  should  operate  in  Ireland,  and  that 
the  consent  of  the  Privy  Council  of  England 
was  necessary  for  all  acts  of  the  Irish  Parlia- 
ment. These  measures  at  once  deprived  Ire- 
land of  all  claim  to  independent  government. 
Henceforward  she  was  to  be  the  helpless  de- 
pendent of  the  conquering  country.  But  the 
loss  of  liberty  did  not  destroy  the  Irish  desire 
for  freedom  ;  it  rather  gave  it  an  additional  in- 
centive to  action. 

Ireland  being  .thus   soldered  close  to  Eng- 
land, Henry  was  content  to  leave  the  govern- 


THE  NORMAN  CONQUEST.  41 

uient  of  the  country  in  the  hands  of  its  most 
powerful  man.  "All  Ireland,"  men  said,"  was 
not  a  match  for  the  Earl  of  Kildare."  "Then 
let  the  Earl  of  Kildare  govern  all  Ireland," 
said  Henry  VII.,  and  gave  the  rule  of  Ireland 
into  his  hands.  He  had  been  the  most  potent 
spirit  in  Ireland  under  the  old  system ;  to  con- 
firm his  power  under  the  new  seemed  to  the  astute 
Henry  the  surest  means  of  securing  his  al- 
legiance and  the  quiet  dependence  of  Ireland. 

His  successor,  the  eighth  Henry,  looked  on 
the  Geraldine  power  with  grave  jealousy.  The 
control  of  the  island  was  practically  in  the 
hands  of  the  Earls  of  Kildare  and  their  follow- 
ers, and  was  drifting  day  by  day  further  from 
the  control  and  supremacy  of  England.  What 
use  were  statutes  of  Kilkenny  and  Poynings's 
Acts  if  the  country  was  under  the  command  of 
an  Anglo-Irish  house  who  defied  the  authority 
of  England?  His  jealousy  of  the  Geraldines 
was  fostered  by  Wolsey,  who  was  consideral)ly 
under  the  influence  of  the  House  of  Ormonde, 
the  bitter  enemies  of  the  Geraldines.  Gerald, 
the  ninth  earl,  son  of  Henry  VII.'s  deputy,  was 
summoned  to  Enijland.  He  was  at  once  thrown 
into  the  Tower,  and  false  news  of  his  execution 
was  sent  to  Dublin.  His  son.  Lord  Thomas 
Fitzgerald,  "  Silken  Thomas,"  as  he  was  com- 
monly called  by  his  people.,  from  the  splendor 
of  his  dress,  displayed  no  silken  spirit.  He 
raised  at  once  a  desperate  revolt  against  the 
king,  but  his  forces  were  shattered  by  the  Eng- 
lish artillery,  brought  thus  into  Irish  warfare 
for  the  first  time.  He  and  his  five  uncles  were 
compelled  to  surrender.  They  were  sent  to 
London,  to  the  Tower,  where  the  Earl  of 
Kildare  had  died  of  a  broken  heart,  and  they 


42       A  SHOUT  HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 
i 

were  all  hanged  at  Tyburn.  Only  one  of  their 
kin,  a  boy  of  twelve,  a  son  of  the  Earl  of  Kil- 
dare  bv"  his  second  wife,  escai)ed  from  the 
slaujjhter  of  his  race  to  Rome,  to  found  aaain 
the  fortunes  of  his  house.  "  The  dying  Gracchus," 
said  Mirabeau,  "flung  dust  to  heaven,  and  from 
that  dust  sprang  ^Marius."  From  the  blood  of 
the  Geraldines  arose  the  great  house  of  Desmond 
and  Tyrone,  which  at  one  time  seemed  likely  to 
establish  the  independence  of  Ireland. 

Henry's  next  act  was  to  confiscate  the  Church 
lands  in  Ireland  as  he  had  done  in  Elngland. 
How  this  was  done  we  may  learn  in  the  melan- 
choly words  of  the  Four  ]\lasters  :  "They  broke 
down  the  monasteries,  and  sold  their  roofs  and 
bells  from  Arran  of  the  Saints  to  the  Iccian 
Sea.  .  .  .  They  l^urned  the  images,  shrines, 
and  relics  .  .  .  the  staft'  of  Jesus,  Avhich  had 
been  in  the  hand  of  St.  Patrick."  A  Parlia- 
ment was  summoned  at  Dul)lin,  at  which  for  the 
first  time  some  Irish  chieftains  were  to  be  seen 
sitting  by  the  English  lords  at  the  national  as- 
sembly. These  chiefs  agreed  to  hold  their  land 
of  the  kino;  by  Enoflish  law.  to  come  to  the 
king's  courts  for  justice,  to  attend  Parliament, 
to  send  their  sons  to  be .  educated  at  the  Eng- 
lish court,  and  to  renounce  the  authority  of  the 
Pope.  The  Parliament  conferred  on  Henry  and 
his  successors  the  title  of  King  instead  of  Lord 
Paramount  of  Ireland. 

Under  Edward,  the  chiefs  who  dwelt  in  Leix, 
Offaly,  Fercal,  and  Ely,  in  the  central  plain  of 
Ireland,  of  whom  the  O'Moores  and  O'Connors 
were  chief,  showed  signs  of  revolt.  They  were 
formidable  and  warlike,  and  Henry  VIII.  had 
thought  it  well  worth  his  while  to  keep  them 
quiet  by  subsidy.     With  the  news  of  his  death 


ELIZABETH.  48 

they  may  have  thought  that  an  opportunity  of 
some  kind  had  come;  but  whether  they  in- 
tended rebellion  or  not,  the  government  acted 
on  the  assumption  that  they  did,  and  crushed 
them  before  they  had  time  to  move,  captured 
their  chiefs,  hiid  waste  their  settlements,  and 
tinally  contiscated  their  lands,  and  planted  them 
with  English  settlers.  The  dispossessed  Irish 
(h'ove  the  settlers  out  after  nine  years  of  cease- 
less warfare.  Then  the  government  put  forth 
its  strength,  sliot  down  the  obnoxious  natives 
wherever  they  could  set  at  them,  hunted  them 
as  outlaws,  and  at  last  practically  exterminated 
them.  Mary  was  by  this  time  on  the  throne. 
A  part  of  Offaly,  Fercal,  and  Ely  was  con- 
verted into  King's  County ;  Leix,  another  por- 
tion of  Otfaly,  and  Upper  Ossory,  became 
Queen's  County.  In  the  settlement  of  these 
two  counties  we  mav  see  the  betjinnino^s  of 
those  plantation  schemes,  which  were  to  be 
carried  on,  on  so  large  a  scale,  by  the  succeed- 
ing English  rulers,  whether  Tudor,  Stuart,  or 
Puritan. 

CHAPTER  IV. 

ELIZABETH. 

The  Reformation  begun  under  Henry  VIII. 
was  carried  out  with  pitiless  determination  un- 
der Edward  VI.,  and  was  met  by  the  Catholics 
with  unflinching  opposition.  Under  Mary  there 
was  a  period  of  respite,  but  the  strife  was  re- 
newed with  .greater  fierceness  in  the  succeeding 
reign.  As  authentic  Irish  history  begins  with 
St.  Patrick,  so  with  Elizabeth  modern  Irish 
history  may  be  said  to  begin.     The  principles 


44       A  SHOUT  IIISTOB  Y  OF  IRELAND. 

of  the  Refomiation  had  only  served  to  deepen 
the  hostility,  already  deep  enough,  between  the 
Irish  chiefs  and  the  English  crown.  It  had 
also  served  to  unite  the  Catholic  Anglo-IrisJi 
with  the  Catholic  native  Irish  as  they  had  never 
been  united  l)efore.  The  English  Act  of  Uni- 
forniity  had  not  yet  been  registered  by  a  Parlia- 
ment. Elizabeth,  in  January,  15(50,  sum- 
moned a  carefully  chosen  and  obedient  Parlia- 
ment, which  repealed  the  Catholic  Acts  passed 
by  Mary,  and  passed  the  Act  of  Uniformity, 
which  made  the  new  liturgy  compulsory.  Many 
of  the  Insliops  accepted  the  situation  ;  those 
who  refused,  and  who  were  within  Elizabeth's 
l)ower,  were  deprived ;  those  outside  the  Pale 
and  its  power  trusted  in  their  isolation  and  de- 
fied the  new  measures.  The  seizures  of  Henry 
and  Edward  had  impoverished  the  Irish  Church, 
but  the  s[)irit  of  the  Church  was  unbroken. 
On  hillsides  and  by  hedges  the  mendicant  friars 
still  preached  the  faith  of  their  fathers  in  their 
fathers'  native  tongue,  and  wherever  they  went 
they  found  a  people  eager  to  hear  and  to  honor 
them,  resolute  to  oppose  the  changes  that  came 
in  the  name  of  Henrv,  of  Edward,  and  of 
Elizal)eth  from  across  the  sea. 

At  her  accession,  Elizal)eth  Avas  too  much  oc- 
cupied with  foreign  com})lications  to  pay  nnich 
heed  to  Ireland.  Trouble  first  began  in  a  con- 
flict between  the  feudal  laws  and  the  old  Irish 
law  of  Tanistry.  Con  O'Xeil,  Earl  of  Tyrone, 
had  taken  his  title  from  Henry  VIII.,  subject 
to  the  English  law  of  succession  ;  but  when  Con 
died,  the  clan  O'Xeil,  disregarding  the  English 
principle  of  hereditary  succession,  chose  Shane 
O'Neil,  an  illegitimate  son  of  Con,  and  the  hero 
of  bis  sept,  to  be  The  O'Xeil,     Shane  O'Xeii 


ELIZABETH.  45 

at  once  put  himself  forward  as  the  champion  of 
Irish  lil)erty,  the  supporter  of  the  Irish  right 
to  rule  themselves  in  their  own  way  and  })a>'  no 
heed  to  England.  Under tho  pretence  of  govern- 
ing the  country,  Elizabeth  over-ran  it  with  a 
soldiery  who,  as  even  Mr.  Froude  acknowledges, 
lived  almost  universally  on  plunder,  and  were 
little  better  than  bandits.  The  time  was  an  ap- 
})ropriate  one  for  a  champion  of  Irish  rights. 
Shane  O'Xeil  boldly  stood  out  as  sovereign  of 
Ulster,  and  pitted  himself*  against  Elizabeth. 
She  tried  to  have  him  removed  by  assassination. 
When  this  failed  she  tried  to  temporize.  Shane 
was  invited  to  England,  where  the  courth' 
gentlemen  who  hovered  about  Elizal)eth  stared 
over  their  spreading  rulfs  in  wonder  at  Shane 
the  Proud  and  his  wild  followers  in  their  salfron- 
stained  shirts  and  roush  cloaks,  with  great  bat- 
tie-axes  in  their  hands.  They  shar[)ened  their 
wits  u});))!  his  haughty  bearing,  his  scornful 
speech,  and  his  strange  garb.  But  his  size  and 
strength  made  great  impression  on  the  queen, 
and  for  the  moment  an  amicable  arrangement 
seemed  to  be  arrived  at.  For  many  years  there 
had  been  a  stead v  immigration  of  Scots  from 
Argylesliire  into  ^Vntrim,  \vho  had  often  served 
Shane  O'Xeil  as  mercenaries.  These  Scotch 
settlers  seem  to  have  l)een  regarded  with  dis- 
like by  the  crown ;  at  all  events,  it  Avas  part  of 
the  compact  with  Shane  that  he  should  reduce 
them,  and  reduce  them  he  did,  with  no  light  or 
sparing  hand.  But  the  fierce  King  of  Ulster 
was  by  far  too  powerful  to  please  Elizabeth  long. 
Mer  ajxents  induced  other  tribes  to  rise  ao^ainst 
hmi.  Shane  fouoht  l)ravelv  aaainst  his  fate,  but 
he  was  defeated,  piit  to  flight,  and  murdered  by 
his   enemies,  the   Scots    of  Antrim,    in   whose 


46        A  SHOUT  HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 

strongholds  he  madly  sought  refuge.  His  head 
was  struck  off,  and  sent  to  adorn  the  walls  of 
Dublin  Castle,  His  lands  were  declared  for- 
feit, and  his  vassals  vassals  of  the  crown. 
English  soldiers  of  fortune  were  given  grants 
from  k^hane's  escheated  territory,  but  when  they 
attempted  to  settle  they  were  killed  by  the 
O'Neils.  Others  came  in  their  })lace,  under 
Walter  Devereux,  Earl  of  Essex,  and  did  their 
best  to  simplify  the  process  of  colonization  by 
exterminating  the  O'Neils,  men,  women,  and 
children,  wherever  they  could  be  got  at.  After 
two  years  of  struggle  Essex  was  compelled  to 
abandon  his  settlement.  But  otlier  colonizers 
were  not  disheartened.  Some  West  of  England 
gentlemen,  under  Peter  Carew,  seized  on  Cork, 
Limerick,  and  Kerry,  and  sought  to  hold  them 
by  extirpating  the  obnoxious  natives. 

Against  these  English  inroads  the  great 
Geraldine  Leanrue  was  formed.  In  the  reign 
of  Mary,  that  boy  of  twelve  whom  Henry  VIII. 
had  not  been  able  to  include  in  the  general 
doom  of  his  house  had  been  allowed  to  return 
to  Ireland,  and  to  resume  his  ancestral  honors. 
Once  more  the  Geraldines  were  a  2:reat  and 
powerful  family  in  Ireland.  But  their  strength 
had  again  awakened  the  alarm  of  the  English 
government.  The  Earl  of  Desmond  and  his 
brother  had  been  summoned  to  England  and 
cast  into  the  Tower.  Their  cousin,  James 
Fitzmaurice  of  Desmond,  now  began  to  unite 
the  Geraldines  against  Carew  and  his  compan- 
ions, and  fought  them  and  those  sent  to  help 
them  for  two  years.  They  were,  of  course, 
defeated ;  not,  however,  so  badly  but  that 
Elizabeth  was  willing  not  only  to  receive  their 
submission,   but  to  release  Desmond  and   his 


ELIZABETH.  47 

brother  from  the  Tower  and  send  them  back  to 
Ireland,  James  Fitzmaurice  Fitzgerald  went 
into  voluntary  exile,  wandering  from  capital 
to  capital  of  the  Catholic  continental  powers, 
seeking  aid  and  assistance  for  his  cherished 
Geraldine  League.  The  Geral dines  and  their 
companion  chiefs  got  encouragement  in  Rome 
and  pledges  from  Spain,  and  they  rose  again 
under  the  Earl  of  Desmond  and  Sir  James 
Fitzmaurice  Fitzgerald.  At  first  thev  had  some 
successes.  They  had  many  wrongs  to<-avenge. 
Sir  Nicholas  Maltby  had  just  crushed  out,  with 
the  most  pitiless  cruelty,  a  rising  of  the  Bourkes 
of  Connaught.  Sir  Francis  Cosby,  the  queen's 
representative  in  Leix  and  Offaly,  had  conceived 
and  executed  the  idea  of  preventing  any  further 
])ossible  rising  of  the  chiefs  in  those  districts  by 
summon ino-  them  and  their  kinsmen  to  a  jjreat 
banquet  in  the  fort  of  Mullaghmast,  and  there 
massacring  them  all.  Out  of  four  hundred 
guests,  only  one  man,  a  Lalor,  escaped  from 
that  feast  of  blood.  •  Of  the  clan  O'AlQore  no 
less  than  one  hundred  and  eighty  chief  men 
were  slauo-litered.  One  of  th6  Moores  had  not 
come  to  that  fatal  banquet.  Ruari  Oge 
O'Moore,  better  known  as  "  Rory  O'Moore," 
devoted  himself  to  aveno-ino;  his  murdered  kins- 
men,  and  the  cry  of  "  Remember  Mullaghmast !" 
sounded  dismally  in  the  ears  of  the  settlers  of 
King's  and  Queen's  Counties  for  many  a  long- 
year  after,  whenever  Rory  O'Moore  made  one 
of  his  swoops  u})on  them  with  that  shout  for 
his  battle-cry.  With  such  memories  in  their 
minds,  the  tribes  rose  in  all  directions  to  ^he 
Desmond  call.  Earl 3^  in  the  rising  Fitzmaurice 
was  killed  in  a  scuffle.  This  was  a  heavy  blow 
to  the  rebels  ;  so  was  a  defeat  of  the  Geraldines 


48       A  SHOUT  HIS  Ton  Y  OF  Hi  EL  AND. 

by  Sir  Nicholas  Maltby  at  Monaster.  Elizabeth 
sent  over  more  troops  to  Ireland  under  the  new 
Lord  Deputy,  Sir  William  Pelham,  who  had 
with  him  as  ally  Ormonde,  the  head  of  the 
house  of  Butler,  hereditary  foes  of  the 
Geraldiues,  and  easily  induced  to  act  against 
them.  P(^lh;ini  and  Ormonde  cut  their  way 
over  jMunstei".  reducing  the  province  by  un- 
exampled ferocity.  Ormonde  boasted  that  he 
had  put  to  death  nearly  six  thousand  disaffected 
persons.  Just  at  this  moment  some  of  the 
chiefs  of  the  Pale  rose,  and  rose  too  late.  They 
gained  one  victory  over  Lord  Grey  de  Wilton 
in  the  pass  of  Glenmalure,  where  the  troops 
were  com})letely  routed  ])y  the  chief  of  Glen- 
malure, Feach  MacHuii'li,  Avhom  the  English 
called  "  the  Firebrand  of  the  Mountains." 
Grey  immediately  abandoned  tlie  Pale  to  the 
insurgents,  and  turned  to  Smerwick,  where 
some  eight  hinidred  Spanish  and  Italian  soldiers 
had  just  landed,  too  late  to  ])e  of  any  service  to 
the  re])ellion,  and  had  occu})Jed  the  dismantled 
fort.  It  Avas  at  once  blockaded  by  sea  and  by 
land.  In  Grey's  army  Sir  AValter  Kaleigh  and 
Edmund  Spenser  both  held  commands.  Smer- 
wick surrendered  at  discretion,  and  the  prison- 
ers were  kiUed  by  Kaleigh  and  his  men  in  cold 
blood.  Flushed  ])y  this  success.  Grey  returned 
to  the  Pale  and  carried  all  ])efore  him.  The 
Geraldiues  were  disheartened,  and  were  de- 
feated >vherever  they  made  a  stand.  Lord 
Kildare  was  arrested  on  suspicion  of  treason, 
and  sent  to  London  to  die  in  the  Tower. 
Martial  law  was  })roclaimed  in  Dublin,  and 
every  one,  gentle  or  simple,  suspected  of  dis- 
atfection  was  promptly  hanged.  Munster  was 
pacitied   by    an    unstinted    use    of   sword    and 


ELIZABETH.  i% 

gallows.  The  Desmond  held  out  for  a  time, 
but  he  was  caught  at  last  and  killed  in  the 
Slievemish  Mountains,  and  his  head  sent  to 
London  to  adorn  the  Tower.  Munster  was  so 
vigorously  laid  waste  that  Mr.  Froude  declares 
that  "the  lowino-  of  a  cow  or  the  sound  of  a 
ploughboy's  whistle  was  not  to  be  heard  from 
Valentia  to  the  Rock  of  Cashel." 

Holinshed  declares  the  traveller  would  not 
meet  any  man,  woman,  or  child,  saving  in  towns 
or  cities,  and  would  not  see  any  beast ;  and 
Spenser  gives  a  melancholy  picture  of  the  misery 
of  the  inhabitants,  "as  that  any  stony  heart  would 
rue  the  same."  They  were  driven  by  misery  to 
eat  dead  bodies  scraped  out  of  the  grave  ;  and 
Sir  William  Pelham  proudly  tells  the  queen 
how  he  has  reduced  the  inhabitants  to  prefer 
being  slaughtered  to  dying  of  starvation.  Be- 
ing thus  pacified,  Munster  was  now  divided 
into  seigniories  of  from  four  thousand  to  twelve 
thousand  acres,  to  be  held  in  fee  of  the  crown 
at  a  quit-rent  of  from  '2d.  to  ?>d.  per  acre,  by 
such  adventurers  as  cared  to  struggle  with  the 
dispossessed  Irish. 

The  next  step  was  to  confiscate  the  estates  of 
the  rebellious  chieftains.  Sir  John  Perrot  suc- 
ceeded Lord  Grey  as  Deputy.  He  summoned 
a  Parliament  at  which  many  of  the  Irish  chiefs, 
persuaded,  no  doubt,  by  the  strength  of  Eng- 
land's recent  arguments,  attended  in  English 
dress.  The  Parliament  was  perfectly  manage- 
able. It  attainted  any  one  whom  the  Lord 
De})uty  wished  attainted.  The  estates  of  Des- 
mond and  some  hundred  and  forty  of  his  follow- 
ers came  to  the  crown.  The  land  was  then  dis- 
tributed at  the  cheapest  rate  in  large  tracts  to 
English  nobles  and  gentlemen  adventurers,  who 


50       A  SHOBT  HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 

were  pledged  to  colonize  it  with  English  labor- 
ers and  tradesmen.  But  of  these  laborers  and 
tradesmen  not  many  came  over,  and  those  who 
did  soon  returned,  tired  of  struggling  for  their 
foot-hold  with  the  dispossessed  Irish.  In  de- 
fault of  other  tenants,  the  new  owners  of  the 
soil  were  practically  forced  to  take  on  the 
natives  as  tenants-at-will,  and  thus  the  desired 
change  of  population  was  not  effected. 

Perrot  was  a  stern  but  not  a  merciless  man, 
with  a  fierce  temper,  which  made  him  many 
enemies  anions:  his  own  colleao:ues.  He  dis- 
liked  the  policy  of  Bingham  in  Connaught,  and 
challenged  him.  He  had  a  difference  of  opinion 
with  Sir  Henry  Bagnal,  and  thought  he  had  set- 
tled it  when  he  had  knocked  Bagnal  down. 
Nor  was  he  more  popular  with  the  Irish.  He 
treacherously  captured  Hugh  Roe,  or  Red  Hugh 
O'Donnel,  son  of  Hugh  O'Donnel,  of  Tyrcon- 
nel,  and  kept  him  in  Dublin  Castle  as  a  hostage 
for  his  father's  good  behavior,  and  thus  made 
young  Red  Hugh  a  bitter  and  dangerous  enemy 
to  the  crown.  In  the  end  Perrot  was  recalled 
and  Sir  William  Fitzwilliam  sent  in  his  stead. 

After  six  years  of  an  exasperating  rule, 
Fitzwilliam  gave  place  in  1594  to  Sir  William 
Russell,  who  found  the  country  hopelessly  dis- 
organized. Red  Hugh  had  escaped  from  Dub- 
lin Castle  to  his  sept  in  Donegal,  and  his  father 
had  resigned  the  chieftainship  to  him.  The 
dragoonings  of  Sir  Richard  Bingham  had  driven 
Connaught  to  desperation.  The  northern  tribes 
were  disturbed  ;  some  were  in  rebellion.  Uls- 
ter, which  had  kept  quiet  all  through  the 
Desmond  rebellion,  was  stirred  by  the  spirit  of  se- 
dition, and  its  great  chief,  HughO'Neil  of  Tyrone, 
was  thought  to  be  discontented  and  dangerous. 


ELIZABETH.  51 

Hugh  O'Xeil,  the  grandson  of  that  Con 
O'Ncil  wlioni  Henry  VHI.  hud  made  Earl  of 
Tyrone,  had  been  l)roiight  up  at  the  English 
court  and  oontirnied  in  the  lordship  of  Tyrone 
by  the  English  government.  In  the  brilliant 
court  of  Elizabeth  the  young  Irish  chief  wa8 
distinguished  for  his  gifts  of  mind  and  body. 
When  he  came  of  age  he  was  allowed  to  return 
to  Ireland  to  his  earldom.  Once  within  his  own 
country  he  assumed  his  ancestral  title  of  The 
O'Xeil,  and  revived  all  the  customs  of  inde- 
pendent Irish  chieftains.  For  long  enough  he 
took  no  part  in  any  plots  or  movements  against 
the  crown  ;  but  many  things,  the  ties  of  friend- 
ship and  of  love,  coml)ined  to  drive  him  into 
rebellion.  He  had  been  deeply  angered  by  the 
im})risonment  of  his  kinsman,  Red  Hugh  ;  and 
when  Red  Hugh  escaped,  burning  with  a  sense 
of  his  wrongs  and  a  desire  for  revenge,  he 
brought  all  his  influence  to  bear  upon  O'Neil  to 
draw  him  into  a  confederation  against  the 
government.  Another  and  more  romantic 
caus^  helped  to  drive  Tyrone  into  revolt. 
After  the  death  of  his  first  wife  he  had  fallen  in 
love  with  the  beautiful  sister  of  Sir  Henrv 
Bagnal,  the  Lord  Marshal,  and  the  lady  had 
returned  his  love.  In  defiance  of  the  fierce 
opposition  of  her  brother,  she  elopod  with  the 
Irish  chief,  and  made  Bagnal  the  remorseless 
'  enemy  of  Tyrone. 

Bagnal  used  all  his  influence  to  discredit  Ty- 
rone in  the  eyes  of  the  English  government, 
and  he  succeeded.  Urired  b\'  Red  Hugh  and 
the  rebellious  chiefs  on  the  one  side,  and  by  the 
enmitv  of  Bagnal  and  the  oroAvimr  distrust  of 
the  English  government  on  the  other,  Tyrone 
in  th^  end  consented  to  give  the  powerful  sup- 


52        A  SHORT  HISTOR  Y  OF  IRELAND. 

port  of  his  name  and  his  amis  to  a  skilfully 
planned  confederation  of  the  tribes.  On  all 
sides  the  Irish  chiefs  entered  into  the  insurrec- 
tion. O'Neil  was  certainly  the  most  fonnidable 
Irish  leader  the  English  had  yet  encountered. 
He  was  a  brilliant  general  and  a  skilled  politician, 
and  even  Mr.  Fronde  admits  that  "his  career  is 
unstained  with  personal  crimes."  He  defeated 
an  English  army  under  Bagnal  at  the  Black- 
water,  after  a  tierce  battle,  inflamed  by  more 
than  mere  national  animosity.  Each  leader 
was  animated  by  a  bitter  hatred  of  his  opponent, 
which  lends  something  of  an  Homeric  character 
to  the  struairle  bv  the  Blackwater.  But  Tv- 
rone  was  fortunate  in  war  as  in  love.  Bagnal's 
forces  were  completely  defeated,  and  Bagnid 
himself  killed.  Fortune  seemed  to  smile  on 
Tyrone's  arms.  Victory  followed  victorv.  In 
a  little  while  all  Ireland,  with  the  excei)tion  of 
Dublin  and  a  few  garrison  towns,  was  in  the 
hands  of  the  rebels.  Essex,  and  the  largest 
army  ever  sent  to  Ireland,  crossed  the  Channel 
to  cope  with  him  ;  but  Essex  made  no  serious 
move,  and  after  an  interview  with  Tyrone,  in 
which  he  [)roniised  more  than  he  could  perform, 
he  returned  to  England  to  liis  death.  His  place 
was  taken  by  Lord  Mountjoy,  who,  for  all  his 
loveof  angling  and  of  Elizabethan  "  play-books," 
was  a  stronijer  man.  Tyrone  met  him  ;  was 
defeated.  From  that  hour  the  rebellion  was 
over.  A  Spanish  army  that  had  come  to  aid 
the  rebels  hurriedly  re-embarked;  many  of  the 
chiefs  began  to  surrender ;  wild  Eed  Hugh 
O'Donnel,  flying  to  S[)!iin  to  rouse  allies,  Avas 
poisoned  and  died.  The  sufl'e rings  of  the  Irish 
were  terrible.  Moryson,  Mountjoy's  soiretary, 
a  great  traveller  for  his  time,   a  Ulysses  of  tei\ 


ELIZABETH.  63 

^•o:l^s'  wjinderinirs,  tells  much  the  same  stories 
of  the  after-consequences  of  this  revolution 
wliich  were  told  by  Spenser  of  the  former. 
The  carcasses  of  people  lay  in  ditches,  their 
dead  mouths  open,  green  with  the  docks  and 
nettles  on  which  they  had  endeavored  to  sup- 
port life.  Young  children  were  trapped  and 
eaten  by  the  starving  women  who  were  hiding 
in  the  woods  on  the  Xewry.  He  and  Sir 
Arthur  Chichester  witnessed  the  horrible 
spectacle  of  three  young  children  devouring  the 
entrails  of  their  dead  mother. 

At  last  Tyrone  was  compelled  to  come  to 
terms.  He  surrendered  his  estates,  renounced 
nil  claim  to  the  title  of  The  O'Neil,  abjured 
;illiance  with  all  foreign  powers,  and  promised 
to  introduce  English  laws  and  customs  into 
Tyrone.  In  return  he  received  .a  free  pardon 
and  a  re-grant  of  his  title  and  lands  by  letters 
patent,  llory  O'Donnel,  Ked  Hugh's  In'other, 
also  submitted,  and  was  allowed  to  retain  the 
title  of  Earl  of  Tyrconnel.  Elizabeth  was  al- 
ready dead,  and  the  son  of  Mary  Stuart  was 
King  of  England  when  these  terms  were  made  ; 
but  they  were  not  destined  to' do  much  good. 

Tyrone  was  brought  to  London  to  meet  King: 
James.  He  stayed  at  AVanstead  as  Mountjoy's 
guest,  where,  four-and-twenty  years  before,  he 
had  been  present  at  Leicester's  entertainment 
of  Queen  Elizabeth.  Those  four-and-twenty 
years  had  brought  many  changes  :  they  had  car- 
ried away  many  gallant  gentlemen  and  wise 
statesmen  and  brave  soldiers  ;  they  had  changed 
Tyrone  from  the  brilliant  younu'  man  dream'ngf 
after  liberty  into  the  "new  man"  of  Elizabeth's 
successor. 

Tyrone  returned  to  Irelaivi,  but  not  to  peace. 


64       A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 

King  James  was  determined  to  reform  the 
country  after  his  own  fashion,  and  in  King 
James's  mind  reform  meant  supporting  the 
Protestant  religion  everywhere,  enforcing  all 
laws  against  the  Catholics,  crushing  out'what- 
ever  remains  of  the  old  Brehon  laws  still  lin- 
gered in  the  country,  and  definitely  estal)Iish- 
ing  the  English  law,  which  only  the  English 
settlers  liked,  in  its  stead.  Sir  George  Carew 
had  been  Deputy,  and  had  come  back  to  Eng- 
land with  a  store  of  money,  and  Chichester  was 
in  his  place  making  himself  hateful  to  the  Irish 
by  his  ingenious  methods  of  wresting  their  land 
from  its  rightful  owners,  and  by  his  pitiless  in- 
tolerance of  the  Catholic  religion.  The  Irish 
Catholics  had  hoped  for  toleration  from  James 
— James,  indeed,  promised  them  on  his  acces- 
sion the  privilege  of  exercising  their  religion  in 
private  ;  but  he  soon  revoked  his  promise,  and 
the  state  of  religion  in  private ;  but  he 
soon  revoked  his  promise,  and  the  state 
of  the  Irish  Catholics  was  worse  than  be- 
fore. Tyrconnel  himself  was  called  upon  to 
conform  to  the  England  faith.      Lest  these  and 

era 

kindred  exasperations  might  arouse  once  more 
the  dangerous  wrath  of  the  chiefs,  Chichester 
enforced  a  ri2:orous  disarmament  of  the  kernes. 
It  is  hardly  to  be  wondered  at  if  the  reforming 
spirit  of  James  did  not  greatly  commend  itself 
to  two  such  national  leaders  as  Tyrone  and 
T^^rconnel ;  it  would  not  be  very  surprising  if 
they  had  thoughts  of  striving  against  it. 
Whether  they  had  such  thoughts  or  not,  they 
were  accused  of  entertaining  them.  They  were 
seen  to  be  dangerous  enemies  to  the  king's 
policy,  whom  it  would  be  convenient  to  have 
out  of  the  way,  and  they  were  proclaimed  as 


ELIZABETH.  55 

traitors.  They  seem  to  have  been  convinced  of 
the  impossibility  of  resistance  just  then  ;  they 
saw  that  it  was  death  to  remain,  and  they  tied 
hito  exile.  "It  is  certain,"  say  the  Four  Mas- 
ters, "that  the  sea  never  carried,  and  the  winds 
never  wafted,  from  the  Irish  shores  individuals 
more  illustrious  or  noble  in  genealogy,  or  more 
renowned  for  deeds  of  valor,  prowess,  and  high 
achievements."  Tyrone  with  his  wife,  Tyr- 
connel  with  his  sister  and  friends-:i^nd  followers, 
ninety-nine  in  all,  set  sail  in  one  small  vessel 
on  the  I4th  of  Septemper,  1607,  and  tossed  for 
twenty-one  days  upon  the  raging  waves  of  the 
sea,  We  hear  of  O'Neil  trailing  his  golden 
crucifix  at  the  vessel's  wake  to  bring  about  a 
;Cftlra ;  of  two  storm-worn  merlins  who  took 
shelter  in  the  rigging  and  were  kindly  cared  for 
by  the  Irish  ladies.  On  the  4th  of  October 
they  landed  at  Quilleboeuf,  on  the  coast  of 
France,  and  made  their  way  to  Rouen,  receiv- 
ing kind  treatment  at  all  hands.  James  de- 
manded their  surrender,  but  Henri  Quatre  re- 
fused to  comply,  though  he  advised  the  exiles 
to  go  into  Flanders. 

Into  Flanders  they  went,  their  ladies  giving 
the  Marshal  of  Normandy  those  two  storm- 
worn  'merlins  they  had  cherished  as'  a  token 
of  their  gratitude  for  his  kindness.  .  From 
Flanders,  in  time,  they  made  their  way  to 
Rome,  and  there  they  lived  in  exile,  and  died 
long  years  after.'  Tyrconnel  died  first,  in  1608, 
and  the  Four  Masters  weep  over  his  early 
eclipse.  Clad  in  the  simple  robe  of  a  Francis- 
can friar,  he  was  buried  in  the  Franciscan 
church  of  St.  Pietro  in  Montorio,  where  the 
Janiculum  overlooks  the  glory  of  Rome,  the 
yellow  Tiber,  and  the  Alban  Hills,  the  death- 


56       A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  IJtEL AND. 

less  Coliseum  and  the  stretching  Campagna. 
Raphael  had  painted  the  Transfiguration  for  the 
grand-altar  ;  the  hand  of  Sebastiano  del  Piombo 
had  colored  its  walls  with  the  scourjiino-  of  the 
Redeemer.  Close  at  hand  tradition  marks  the 
spot  where  Peter  was  crucified.  In  such  a  spot, 
made  sacred  by  all  that  art  and  religion  could 
lend  of  sanctity,  the  spirit  of  Tr^^connel  rested 
in  peace  at  last.  His  companion  in- arms  and 
m  misfortune  survived  him  some  eight  years. 
We  have  a  melancholy  picture  of  old  Tyrone 
wandering  about  in  Rome,  and  wishing  in  vain 
to  be  back  in  his  own  land  and  able  to  strike  a 
good  blow  for  her.  He  died  at  last,  on  July 
20,  1616,  in  the  seventy-sixth  year  of  his  age, 
a  brave,  sad,  blind  old  man.  He  was  buried 
in  the  little  church  on  the  Janiculum,  by  the 
side  of  Tyrconnel. 

CHAPTER  V. 

THE  CROMWELLIAN  SETTLEMENT. 

After  the  flight  of  the  earls,  Ireland  was 
entirely  in  James's  hands.  The  very  few  who 
opposed  his  authority  were  sternly  and  sum- 
marily dealt  with.  His  writ  ran  in  every  part 
of  the  island ;  there  was  a  sheriff  for  every 
shire  ;  the  old  Irish  law  was  everywhere  super- 
seded ;  there  was  nothing  to  interfere  with 
James's  schemes  for  confiscating  Irish  land  and 
planting  Irish  provinces.  The  English  had  al- 
ready made  strong  settlements  in  Leinster, 
Connaught,  and  Munster.  Ulster  had  hitherto 
been  practically  untouched,  but  now  at  last  it 
too  was  to  come  under  the  control  of  the 
crown.     The  alleged  treason  of  the  two  earls 


THE    CBOMWELLIAN    SETTLEMENT.     67 

served  as  an  excuse  for  confiscating  tlie  counties 
of  Donegal,  Deny,  Tyrone,  Fermanagh, 
Cavan,  and  Armagh.  A  sort  of  commission 
sat  at  Limavaddy  to  parcel  out  the  lands  of  men 
who  had  committed  no  other  offence  than  that 
of  serving  under  the  exiled  chieftains,  Ulster 
was  planted  with  a  thoroughly  Protestant  and 
anti-Irish  colony  of  English  and  Scotch  ad- 
venturers, and  the  Irish  were  driven  away  from 
the  fertile  lands  like  Red  Indians,  to  contracted 
and  miserable  reservations,  while  the  fighting 
men  Were  shipped  off  to  swell  the  armies  of 
Gustavus  Adolphus.  Twelve  City  of  London 
companies  bought  great  tracts  of  land  in.  Deny 
at  very  cheap  rates.  Six  of  these  companies 
— ^the  Mercers,  Salters,  Skinners,  Ironmongers, 
Fishmongers,  and  Drapers — still  retain  much 
of  the  property  thus  acquired.  The  disinherit- 
ing process  was  carried  on  not  by  force  alone, 
but  by  fmud.  Men  called  "  discoverers  ".  made 
it  their  business  to  spy  out  flaws  in  titles  of 
land,  in  order  that  they  might  be  confiscated 
by  the  crown. 

Conspicuous  among  the  English  adventurers, 
a  very  mirror  of  the  merits  of  his  kind,  is 
Richard  Boyle,  who  afterwards  became  the 
^rst  Earl  of  Cork.  He  was.  a  man  of  very  low  ' 
beginnings.  He  has  been  happily  described  as 
a  forger,  a  horse-thief,  and  a  conniver  at  mur- 
der, who  made  Providence  his  inheritance  and 
prospered  by  it.  Boyle  landed  in  Dublin  on 
Midsummer  Eve,  June  23,  1588,  with  some 
twenty-seven  pounds  in  his  pocket,  a  couple  of 
suits  of  clothes,  a  diamond  ring  and  a  gold 
bracelet,  and,  of  course,  his  rapier  and  dagger. 
After  seven  years'  stay,  the  adventurer  was 
lucky  enough,  aided,  perhaps,  by  the  diamond 


58        A  SHOUT  HISTORY  OP  IRELAND. 

ring  and  the  gold  bracelet,  to  win  the  heart  and 
hand  of  a  lady  of  Limerick  with  five  hundred 
pounds  a  year.  This  was  the  beginning  of  his 
fortunes.  From  that  hour  lands  and  money 
accumulated  about  him.  As  long  as  he  got  it 
he  little  cared  how  it  came.  No  man  was  more 
ready  to  lay  his  hands  upon  any  property  of 
the  Church,  or  otherwise,  that  he  could  securely 
close  them  over.  He  swindled  Sir  Walter 
Raleigh,  then  in  prison  and  near  his  death,  out 
of  his  Irish  land,  for  a  sum  shamelessly  below 
its  value,  and  throve  u})on  the  swindle.  He  is 
a  fair  type  of  the  men  with  whom  James 
planted  Ulster  and  Leinster,  and  with  whom  he 
vrould  have  planted  Connaught,  but  that  he 
■died  before  he  was  able  to  carry  that  scheme 
'iifo  effect.  But  (^harles  inherited  the  scheme, 
ingenious  court  lawyers  investigated  and  inval- 
vlated  the  titles  of  the  Connaught  landlords, 
•uul  Charles  soon  found  himself  the  owner  of 
all  Connaught,  in  the  same  sense  that  a  burglar 
js  the  owner  of  the  watches,  the  plate,  and 
jewels  that  are  the  results  of  a  successful 
"  plant."  But  land  was  not  enough  for  Charles  ;. 
he  wanted  money.  He  was  always  wanting 
money,  and  he  found  a  means  of  raising  it  in 
Ireland  by  promising  grants  of  civil  and  relig- 
ious liberty  to  the  Catholics  in  exchange  for  so 
much  down.  The  money  was  soon  forthcom- 
ing, but  the  promised  liberties  never  came. 
Charles's  great  ally  in  the  management  of  Ire- 
land was  Thomas  Wentworth,  to  whom  the 
government  of  the  country  was  given.  Straf- 
ford devoted  the  great  abilities,  of  which  Lord 
Digby  truly  said  "  that  God  had  given  him  the 
use  and  the  devil  the  application,"  to  support- 
ing: Charles's  fraudulent  schemes  for  extorting 


THE   CROMWELLiAN  SETTLEMENT.    69 

money,  until  his  malign  inJGluence  was  removed 
by  the  summons  to  England  which  ended  in  his 
death.  But  when  the  revolution  began  in  Eng- 
land, which  ended  with  the  fall  of  the  king's 
head,  many  of  the  Irish  thought  their  time  had 
come.  In  1641  the  remnant  of  native  Irish  in 
Ulster  rose,  under  Sir  Phelim  O'N^eil,  against 
the  oppression  of  the  Scotch  settlers.  This 
rising  of  1641  has  been  written  about  often  . 
enough  by  English  historians,  as  if  it  were  an 
act  of  unparalleled  wickedness  and  ferocity.  It 
is  written  of  with  horror  and  hatred  as  the 
"massacre  of  1641."  Mr.  Froude,  in  especial, 
has  lent  all  the  weight  of  his  name  and  his  elo- 
quence to  this  theory  of  a  gigantic  and  well- 
organized  massacre ;  but  Mr.  Froude' s  state- 
ments are  too  curiously  in  advance  of  his  evi- 
dence, and  his  evidence  too  untrustworthy  to 
claim  much  historical  importance.  The  busi- 
ness of  1641  was'  bad  enough  without  Mr. 
Froude  doing  his  best  to  make  it  worse.  In 
one  part  of  Ireland  a  certain  body  of  men  for  ' 
a  short  time  rose  in  successful  insurrection,  and 
they  killed  their  oppressors  as  their  oppressors 
had  always  killed  their  kin,  wherever  they 
could  get  at  them.  Undoubtedly  there  were  a 
great  many  people  killed.  That,  of  course,  no 
one. attempts,  no  one  desires,  to  justify  ;  but  it 
must  be  remembered  that  it  was  no  worse  than 
any  one  of  the  many  massacres  of  the  Irish  by 
the  English,  which  had  taken  place  again  and 
again,  any  time  within  the  memory  of  the  men 
then  living,  to  go  no  further  back.  Far  be  it 
from  me,  far  be  it  from  any  one,  to  defend  the 
cruelties  that  accompanied  the  rising  of  1641  ; 
but  it  is  only  fair  to  remember  that  most  nations 
that  have  been  treated  cruelly  are  cruel  in  their 


60       A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 

revenge  when  they  get  it,  and  the  followers  of 
Sir  Phelim  O'Neil  believed  the}^  had  as  bitter 
wrongs  to  avenge  as  men  can  have.  They  had 
been  taught  lessons  of  massacre  by  their  mas- 
ters, and  this  was  their  tirst  essav.  The 
massacre  of  Mullaghmast,  Essex's  treacherous 
massacre  of  the  clan  O'Xeil,  the  dra^oonin":  of 
Connaught  by  Bingham,  the  desolation  of  JNIun- 
ster,  all  these  atrocities  are  slurred  over  in 
order  to  lend  an  uncontrasted  horror  to  Irish 
crimes.  Mr.  Prendergast  and  Mr.  John  Mitchel 
have  both  written  to  show  the  terrible  exaggera- 
tions that  have  attended  upon  all  representa- 
tions of  the  rising  of  1641.  These  are  Irish 
historians ;  but  an  English  historian,  Mr. 
Goldwin  Smith,  is  fairer  than  Mr.  Froude.  To 
him  the  earl}"  part  of  the  rising  presents  a 
"picture  of  the  vengeance  which  a  people, 
brutalized  by  oppression,  wreaks  in  the  moment 
of  its  brief  triumph  on  its  oppressor."  He 
considers  it  "to  have  been  unpremeditated,  and 
o])})osed  to  the  policy  of  the  leaders;"  and 
when  the  struggle  had  begun,  "the  English, 
and  Scotch  settlers  perhaps  exceeded  the  Irish 
in  atrocity,  especially  wlien  we  consider  their 
comparative  civilization.  The  Irish  population 
of  Island  Magee,  though  innocent  of  the  re- 
bellion, were  massacred,  man,  Avoman,  and  child, 
by  the  Scotch  garrison  of  Carrickfergus."  The 
historian  Borlase,  kinsman  to  the  chief-justice 
of  that  name,  rejoicing  over  the  exploit  of  the 
soldiers  against  the  rebels,  mentions  as  one  item 
how  Sir  AV.  Cole's  regiment  "starved  and  fam- 
ished of  the  vulgar  sort,  whose  goods  were 
seized  on  by  this  regiment,  7000."  No  cruelties 
on  the  one  side  can  ever  justify  retaliation  on 
the  other,  but  to  mention  them  will  at  least 


THE  CROMWELLIAN  SETTLEMENT,,     61 

,  serve  to  dispel  the  idea  which  ^r.  Froude  would 
willingly  foster,  that  at  a  sudden  point  in  the 
history  of  a  blameless  and  bloodless  rule,  some 
wicked  Irish  rose  up  and  slew  some  of  their 
just  and  merciful  masters.  The  masters  were 
neither  just  nor  merciful,  bloodless  nor  blame- 
less. It  wsls  hardly  to  be  expected  that'  a 
people,  treated  as  they  had  been,  would  act 
very  mercifully  when  their  turn  came.  Yet  in 
many  cases  they  did  act  mercifully.  Th© 
followers  of  Sir  Phelim  spared  some  lives  they 
might  have  taken  ;  pitied  some  who  were  in 
their  power.  There  has  been  monstrous  ex- 
ao-ge ration  about  the  stories  of  wholesale  massa- 
ere.  Most  of  the  evidence  given  before  the 
commission  sent  to  inquire  into  the  thing  is 
given  on  hear-say,  and  it.  is  on  this  evidence 
that  the  accounts  of  the  massacre  depend.  Old 
women  who  were  ill  in  bed,  and  saw  nothing  of 
the  struggle,  gave  as  evidence  the  statements  of 
friends,  who  told  them  that  in  many  places 
thousands  of  persons  were  massacred.  Others, 
again,  were  assured  of  such  slauojhterino-s  of 
hundreds  and  thousands  of  persons  in  different 
parts  of  the  country  by  the  rebels  themselves, 
who  display  throughout  the  evidence  a  most 
remarkable  taste  for  self-accusation.  Equally 
valuable  and  veracious  evidence  testifies  that 
the  ghosts  of  the  murdered  were  seen  stalking 
abroad — ^that  in  the  river  near  Portadown, 
where  the  worst  of  the  killing  was  said  to  have 
been,  the  body  of  a  man  stood  erect  for  three 
days  in  the  middle  of  the  water,  and  that 
corpses  floated  against  the  stream  several  days 
after  they  had  been  drowned,  in  order  to  meet 
one  of  their  murderers  who  was  crossing  the 
bridge ! 


es     A  stroiiT  msToit  y  op  t:^SLAND. 

However  it  began,  Sir  Phelim  O'Neil's  rising 
soon  flamed  up  into  a  general  rebellion.  One 
of  the  most  prominent  of  its  leaders  was  Roger 
Moore,  the  last  of  a  stately,  ruined  family,  one 
of  whose  ancestors  had  died  in  the  Tower  under 
Edward  VI.  He  was  a  brave  and  honorable 
gentleman,  whose  handsome  face  and  graceful 
bearing  connnended  him  closely  to  the  men 
from  whom  he  sought  help,  whom  his  eloquence 
was  well  calculated  to  })ersuade,  and  his  states- 
m:ui-like  prudence  and  foresight  to  encourage. 
His  darin<»:  and  irallantry  endeared  him  to  his 
followers,  who  ^^■ere  always  ready  to  fight  their 
best  for  the  war-cry  of  "  For  God,  our  Lady, 
and  Roger  Moore."  At  his  instance  Colonel 
Owen  O'Xeil — better  known  as  Owen  Roe — 
came  over  from  Spain  to  consolidate  and  com- 
mand the  insurrection.  He  was  a  nephew  of 
the  great  Tyrone,  M'ho  had  died  in  Rome  ;  he 
was  a  brave  and  irallant  oentlenian,  of  high  and 
honorable  position  in  the  Spanish  army  ;  he  was 
the  natural  leader  of  the  Irish  people.  Success, 
at  first,  was  strewn  before  his  feet.  A  National 
Convention  met  at  Kilkenny  in  October,  1G42, 
to  establish  the  independence  of  Ireland.  It 
took  upon  itself  all  the  powers  of  a  provisional 
government :  appointed  the  ofiicers  of  its  army  ; 
organized  provincial  councils  ;  issued  proclama- 
tions ;  ordered  its  own  seal  to  be  cut ;  established 
a  mint  for  coming  its  o^vn  money,  and  in  every 
way  showed  itself  ready  to  carry  out  the  work 
of  national  administration.  Frequent  help 
came  from  abroad.  In  O'Neil's  hands  the  amiy 
acquired  new  strength,  and  the  struggle  was 
carried  on  with  marked  humanity.  The  in- 
surrection seemed  in  a  fair  w;iy  to  become  a 
successful    re^'olutlon.     There  were  altogether 


THE  CBOMWELLIAN  SETTLEMENT.      63 

four  parties  in  Ireland,  three  of  whom  it  was  to 
the  king's  advantage  to  conciliate.  The  fourth 
and  least  important  was  that  of  the  Puritans 
and  the  English  Parliament,  headed  ])y  the 
Lords- justices  Parsons  and  Borlase,  whom  Mr. 
Goldwin  Smith  describes  as  a  pair  of  scoundrels 
who  had  done  their  best  to  foment  the  rebellion 
for  their  own  advantage,  and  Generals  Munroe 
and  Coote  the  cruel.  The  three  otlicr  parties 
were — first,  the  native  Irish,  under  Owen  Roe, 
guided  by  the  Papal  Nuncio  Rinuccini,  who  had 
come  over  from  Rome  to  lend  his  support  and 
councils  to  the  movement ;  second,  the  Anglo- 
Irish,  chiefly  composed  of  Catholic  nobles,  who 
supported  the  king,  but  stood  out  for  their  own 
rights  and  religion ;  and,  thirdly,  the  kiug's 
party,  with  his  Lord-deputy,  Lord  Ormonde,  at 
its  head.  Lord  Ormonde  was  a  Protestant, 
entirely  devoted  to  his  king,  and  compelled  to 
play  a  very  difficult  game  in  trying  to  keep 
together  the  rebellious  Irish  who  were  willmg 
to  support  Charles,  and  yet  at  the  same  time 
avoid  giving  offence  to  Charles's  English  follow- 
ers, who  wished  for  no  terms  with  the  Irish. 
Like  most  of  the  Irish  leaders  of  his  time, 
Ormonde  had  had  a  strangelv  checkered  career. 
He  was  the  grandson  of  the  eleventh  Earl  of 
Ormonde,  whose  estates  had  been  unjustly 
filched  from  him  by  his  son-in-law.  Sir  Richard 
Preston,  who  had  obtained  the  favor  of  James, 
and  with  it  the  ])atent  of  the  earldom  of  Des- 
mond. Young  James  Butler  seemed  thus  quite 
cut  off  from  his  inheritance,  but  he  was  lucky 
enough  to  meet  and  win  the  affections  of  Pres- 
ton's daughter,  his  cousin.  He  married  her, 
and  so  in  time  came  into  not  only  the  title  of 
Earl  of  Ormonde,  but  into  the  possession  of  the 


64         A  SHORT  HISTOR  Y  OF  IRELAND. 

good  broad  lands  of  the  family.  Ormonde  had 
managed  his  o>\'n  affairs  skilfully  enough,  but 
he  was  not  the  man  to  till  a  position  of  great 
and  responsil)le  statesmanship.  His  mediocre 
al)ilities  and  temporizing  spirit  were  quite  un- 
suifed  to  the  desperate  circumstances  in  which 
he  was  placed.  Charles  himself,  harassed  l)y 
English  revolutionists  at  home,  made  many  and 
any  pledges  to  the  Irish  revolutionists,  in  the 
hope  of  winnmg  them  to  his  side.  He  never 
had  the  chance  of  breakhig  these  pledges.  The 
execution  at  AVhitehall  left  Cromwell  free  to 
deal  with  Ireland.  He  entered  Ireland  with 
8000  foot  and  4000  horse,  and  marched  from 
victory  to  victory.  Everythmg  was  in  his 
favor:  his  own  military  genius,  the  laurels  of 
Worcester  and  Xaseby,  the  disorganization  of 
the  Irish  parties  ;  and  tlie  contentions  that  had 
sj)rung  up  among  them,  es}iecially  the  removal 
of  the  only  man  reall}'  capable  of  doing  any- 
thing asainst  the  Lord-ueneral  in  the  field. 
Owen  Roe  O'Xeil  died  suddenly,  it  is  said,  of 
course,  by  poison,  though  there  seems  little 
reason  to  believe  this,  and  with  his  death  all 
chance  of  the  indei)endence  dreamed  of  by  the 
Kilkenny  Convention  was  over  for  that  time. 
Roger  ]\Ioore,  the  gallant  and  heroic,  was  al- 
ready dead ;  killed,  it  was  said,  by  bitter  dis- 
appointment at  the  gradual  failure  of  the  cause 
he  had  so  much  at  heart.  ISir  riielim  O'Xeil 
was  captured  soon  after.  HoMcver  he  had 
lived,  he  died  like  a  brave  man  ;  he  was  offered 
a  pardon  if  he  would  only  say  that  he  took  up 
arms  ])y  the  king's  connnand,  but  he  i)referred 
to  die.  One  after  another  the  Irish  leaders 
surrendered  or  were  defeated.  The  king's 
party  was  practically  nowhere.     Qrmonde  had 


THE  CEOMWELLIAN  SETTLEMENT.       65 

fled  to  France  for  his  life.  After  CromweTl  had 
captured  Drogheda  and  put  all  its  people  to  the 
sword,  after  he  had  conquered  AN'exford  and 
slaughtered  no  less  pitilessly  its  inhabitants,  the 
revolution  was  at  an  end.  Ireland  was  iit  Crom- 
well's mercy,  and,  like  all  his  predecessors,  he 
resolved  to  make  a  new  settlement.' 

The  ojovernment  of  Ireland  av^s  now  vested 
in  a  deputy  Commander-in-chief  and  four  com-, 
missioners,  with  a  High  Court  of  Justice,  which 
dealt  out  death,  exile,  and  slavery  in  liberal" 
measure.  The  Parliament  had  soothe'd  the 
claims  of  its  army  by  giving  its  officers  and 
men  debentures  for  Irish  land  ;  and  similar  de- 
bentures were  held  by  a  vast  number  of  ad- 
venturers, who  had  speculated .  thus  in  Irish 
land,  while  the  struggrle  was  goring  on,  to  the 
amount  of  some  2, .500, 000  acres.  These  elainw 
had  now  to  be.  settled ;  but  the  adventurers 
were  not  willing  to  settle  until  all.  possible 
danger  was  removed.  Th(^"e  were  disbanded 
soldiers  in  Ireland  who  might  jtiterfere  witlj  tlie 
peaceful  settlements  of  Cromwellian  would-be 
landlords  ;  and  these  must  be  got  rid  of  before 
any  serious  plantation  could  be  effected.  Word 
was  sent  throughout  P^urope  that  nations 
friendly  to  the  Commonwealth  would  not  beat 
their  drums  "in  vain  in  the  market-places  of 
Irish  garrison  towns.  The  valor  of  Irish  sol- 
diery was  well  enough  known  abroad.  It  had 
b^en  praised  by  William  the  Silent  and  Henri 
Quatre  ;  and  the  redeemer  of  Holland  and  the 
victor  of  Ivry  weregood  judges  of  tall  soldiers. 
So  the  drums  of  Spain,  Poland,  and  France 
were  set  rattling  all  over  Ireland,"  and  to  their 
tuck  the  disbanded  soldiery  marched  away  to 
the  number  of  44,000,  between  1651  and  1()54,  . 


66        A  SHORT  HISTOR  Y  OF  IRELAND. 

to  die  beneath  foreign  ])anners  on  foreign  fields. 
Women  and  girls  who  were  in  the  way  of  the 
adventurers  could  he  got  rid  of  no  less  profita- 
bly to  West  Indian  planters  weary  of  maroon 
and  negro  women.  Into  such  shameful  slavery 
thousands  of  unhapi)y  Irishwomen  were  sent, 
and  it  was  only  when,  the  Irish  supply  being 
exhausted,  the  dealers  in  human  flesh  began  to 
seize  upon  English  women  to  swell  their  lists, 
that  the  practice  was  prohibited.  Sir  William 
Petty  states  that  6000  boys  and  girls  were  sent 
to  the  West  Indies ;  and  the  total  number 
transported  there  and  to  Virginia  was  estimated 
at  10,000.  Henry  Cromwell  not  only  approved 
of  the  exportation  by  force  of  some  thousand 
"Irish  wenches"  for  the  consolation  of  the  sol- 
diers in  the  newly  acquired  colony  of  Jamaica, 
but  of  his  own  motion  suggested  the  shipment, 
also,  of  from  1500  to  2000  boys  of  from  twelve 
to  fourteen  years  of  age.  "We  could  well 
spare  them,''  he  says,  "and  who  knows  but  it 
might  be  a  means  to  make  them  English — I 
mean  Christians?" 

Now  came  the  turn  of  the  adventurers.  The 
government  reserved  for  itself  all  the  towns. 
Church  land,  and  tithes,  and  the  counties  Kil- 
dare,  Dublin,  Carlo w,  and  Cork,  to  satisfy 
friends  and  favorites  who  were  not  army  men. 
The  portion  of  each  adventurer  in  Ulster, 
Leinster,  or  Munster  was  decided  by  lot,  at  a 
lottery  held  in  Grocers'  Hall,  London,  in  July, 
1653.  To  make  the  condition  of  the  advent- 
urers comfortable,  each  of  the  planted  counties 
was  divided  in  half,  and  the  adventurers  were 
quartered,  for  their  greater  encouragement  and 
protection,  in  alternate  baronies  with  soldier 
settlers.    The  rest  of  Ireland,  except  Connaught, 


THB  CltOMWELLlAN  SETTLEMENT.     67 

was  apportioned  to  satisfy  the  arrears  of.  officers 
and  soldiers.  To  keep  the  new  settlers  free 
from  all  Irish  influences,  Connaught  was  ap- 
pointed as  a  reservation  for  the  Irish,  and  all 
English  holding  lands  in  Connaught  were  al- 
lowed to  exchange  them  for  estates  of  equal 
value  in  other  parts  of  Ireland.  The  Irish  were 
then  driven  and  cooped  into  Connaught.  They 
were  not  allowed  to  appear  within  two  miles 
of  the  river  or  four  miles  of  the  sea,  and  a 
rigorous  passport  system  was  established,  to 
evade  which  was  death  without  form  of  trial. 
Irish  noblemen,  who  were  pardoned  for  being 
Irish,  were  compelled  to  wear  a  distinctive 
mark  upon  their  dress,  under  pain  of  death  ; 
and  persons  of  inferior  rank  bore  a  black  spot 
on  the  right  cheek,  under  pain  of  branding  or 
the  gallows.  It  is  curious  to  reflect  that  all 
these  precautions  were  not  able  to  secure  the 
Ironsides  from  the  dreaded  Irish  influence,  and 
that  forty  years  later  many  of  the  children  of 
Cromwell's  troopers  could  not  speak  a  word  of 
English. 

The  plantation  of  the  unhappy  Irish  in  Con- 
naught was  slowly  and  sternly  accomplished. 
Land-owners  had  the  choice  of  becoraino;  the 
tenants-at-will  of  the  new  settlers,  or  of  dying 
on  the  road-side.  The  commissioners  were 
much  harassed  in  the  execution  of  their  task 
by  the  unreasonable  clamor  of  the  dispossessed 
Irish,  who  objected  to  being  reserved  in  Con- 
naught, and  who  complained  that  the  whole  of 
the  province  was  waste  from  famine.  There 
were  parts  of  Connaught  where  it  was  truly 
said  that  there  was  not  wood  enough  to  hang, 
water  enough  to  drown,  or  earth  enough  to 
bury  a  man.     The  commissioners,  anxious,  no 


66        A  SHOit  T  HISTOB  Y  OF  IRELANTh 

doubt,  that  the  Irish  should  know  the  worst  at 
once,  had  sent  the  earliest  transplanted  to  this 
inhospitable  place,  and  their  dismay  com- 
municated itself  to  the  as  yet  untransplanted. 
The  hunted  and  harassed  Irish  nobles  would 
not  transplant  themselves.  It  needed  some 
punishments  l)y  death  to  quicken  the  general 
desire  to  seek  the  appointed  haven  west  of  the 
Shannon.  But  death  not  proving  convenient, 
as  executions  Avould  have  had  to  be  ordered 
wholesale,  it  was  decided  to  ship  oif  the  restive 
Irish,  who  would  not  go  to  Connaught,  to  the 
West  Indies.  But  the  unhappy  wretches  who 
got  to  Connaught  were  not  at  the  end  of  their 
misery.  The  officers  emi)loyed  to  settle  them 
in  their  new  homes  had  to  be  bribed  by  money 
or  by  portion  of  the  reserved  land  to  carry  out 
the  law,  and  the  greedy  officers  were  easily  able 
to  force  the  unhappy  transplanters  to  sell  the 
rest  of  their  reduced  lots  at  miserably  small 
rates.  The  transplanted,  rich  and  poor,  were 
wretchedly  lodged  in  smoky  cabins  or  under  the 
open  air,  and  lay  down  and  measured  out  tlieir 
graves  in  common  confusion  and  misery,  peer 
with  peasant,  starved  to  death. 

The  towns  were  cleared  as  well.  The  in- 
habitants of  Limerick,  Galway,  Waterford,  and 
AVexford  were  ejected  with  scant  compeiit^ation 
and  scanter  ceremony,  to  make  room  for 
English  merchants  from  Liverpool  and  Glouces- 
ter. The  disi)ossessed  Irish  merchants  fled 
across  the  seas  to  carry  their  skill  and  thrift  to 
other  lands,  and  in  the  new  hands  the  com- 
mercial prosperity  of  the  towns  dwindled  away. 
Galway,  that  had  been  a  flourishing  seaport, 
never  recovered  her  resettlement.  The  Irish 
who    were    dis})ossessed,   and  who   would  not 


THE  nmTORATlON.  Gd 

transplant  or  go  into  exile,  took  to  the  woods 
and  mountains,  the  clefts  of  the  rocks  and  the 
caves  of  the  earth,  and  lived  a  life  of  wild 
brigandage,  like  the  Greek  Klephts  dispossessed 
by  the  Turk.  The  government  put  a  price 
upon  the  heads  alike  of  these  Tories,  of  priests, 
and  of  wolves. 

CHAPTER  VI. 

THE  RESTORATIOX. ^AVILLIAM  OF  ORANGE. 

When  Cromwell  and  the  Cromwellian  rule 
had  passed  away  and  the  Stuart  king  came  over, 
to  '' enjoy  his  own  again,''  most  of  the  dis- 
possessed Irish  gentlemen,  whose  loyalty  to  his 
cause  and  creed  had  cost  them  their  estates,  and 
driven  them  to  exile  abroad,  or  worse  than  exile 
in  the  (^onnaught  reservations,  thought  not  un- 
reasonal)ly  tliat  they  might  be  allowed  to  "  enjo}' 
their  own  ngain,"  too,  as  well  as  their  merry 
monarch.  They  were  grievously  disappointed. 
The  Cromwellian  landholders  were  quite  pre- 
])ared  to  secure  their  estates  by  loyal  recognition 
of  the  new  rule,  and  their  adhesion  was  far 
more  servicealile  to  the  second  Charles  than  the 
alle<i;iance  of  the  ruined  Irish  oentlemen.  Men 
like  Brogliill  Avere  not  prepared  to  let  the  lands 
thev  had  sfot  durins:  the  Cromwellian  settle- 
ment  slip  between  their  fingers.  Broghill,  the 
infjunous  Broghill,  as  he  had  been  justly  called, 
was  a  worthy  son  of  the  adventurer  Kichard 
Boyle,  who  had  passed  into  history  as  the 
"great  Earl  of  Cork."  Boyle  was  a  great 
robl^er,  but  Brogliill  was  the  greater,  and  a 
traitor  as  well,  lie  had  served  every  ruling 
government  in  turn,  and  had  always   contrived 


70        A  SHORT  HISTOR  Y  OF  IRELAND. 

to  make  his  subservience  profitable  to  himself. 
He  got  into  the  good  graces  of  Cromwell  by 
the  signal  services  he  rendered  to  his  cause   in 
Ireland,  but  he  was  not  prepared  to  sacrifice  the 
rewards  of  these  services,  the  fair  acres  he  had 
laid  hold  of,    to  any    sentimental   adherence  to 
the    Gromwellian     princii)le.      His    treachery 
secured  the  Restoration  as  far  as  Ireland  was 
concerned ;    he  played   Monk's   part  upon  the 
Irish   stage.      The    breath    once   out  of  Crom- 
well's body,  he  prepared  to  intrigue  for  the  re- 
turn of  Charles.      He  found  an  able  assistant 
in    Coote,    the    cruel    president  of  Connaught. 
Charles  rewarded  the  faithful  Bro^hill  with  the 
confirmation  in  all  his  estates,  and  the   title  of 
Earl  of  Orrery.      Coote  was  confirmed  in  his 
estates    and   made    Earl    of  Mountrath.     This 
w^orthy   pair    of    brothers   were  made   Lords-^ 
justices   of    Ireland,   and   in  their    hands    the 
settlement  of  the  land  question  was   practically 
left.      It   is   easy  to    see    that    it    was    to  the 
interest  of  neither  that  there  should  be  a  general 
redistribution    of    land.     They    arranged     an 
ingenious    scheme    by   Avhich  only  those   w^ho 
proved    themselves   "innocent"    of    a   certain 
series   of  offences  should   be    reinstated.      No 
man  w^'ls  to  be   held  "  innocent  "  wdio  had  not 
belonged  to  the   royal   party  before   1643,    or 
w'ho  had  been  engaged  in  the   confederacy  be- 
fore 1648,    or  who  had  adhered  to  the  party 
of    the    pa})al    nuncio.     Lest  this     might   not 
sufficiently   limit   the  list    of   the    ''innocent" 
it  was  decided  that  no   one   deriving  his  title 
from  such  ort*enders,  and  no  one  who  played  a 
merely  passive  part,  living,  that  is  to   say,   on 
his  estate,  and  leaning  neither  to  the  one   side 
nor  the  other,  should  be  allowed  to  regain  the 


THE  RESTORATION.  71 

lands  he  had  lost.  This  system  was  so  well 
worked  that  except  in  the  rarest  cases  the  plun- 
dered Irish  were  unable  to  get  back  an  acre  of  land 
fi'om  the  new  men.  Ormonde  and  a  fe^y  others 
were  restored  at  once  to  their  estates  and  honors 
without  any  difficult \%  and  the  rest  were  left 
as  they  were. 

Ormonde  was    made    Lord-lieutenant,    and 
once   again  showed   that   he    was    not  "  strong 
enough  for  his  stormy  times.     He  opposed,  but 
could  not  prevent,   the  efforts  of  the  English 
Cabal  to  prohibit  the  importation  of  Irish  cattle 
as  a  nuisance.     The  Cabal  found  no   difficulty 
in  carrjMng  their   point ;  their   only  difficulty 
was  whether  they  should  describe  the  obnoxious 
importation  as  a  "  detriment "  or  a  "  nuisance," 
a  difficulty  which  Clarendon  satirically  proposed 
to  meet  by  suggesting  that  it  might  as  fittingly 
be  called  "  adultery."     When  the  cattle  trade 
was  put  down,  Ormonde  (he  was  now  duke  of 
that  name)  did  his  best  to  advance   the   Irish 
woollen    and    linen   trades,  but   these     efibrts 
rendered  him  hateful  to  the  Cabal,  and  he  was 
removed     from   office.      For   long    enough   he 
lingered    in    disgrace,    attending   at    Charles's 
court  in  London,  and  quietly  enduring  the  in- 
sults that  Charles  and  his  favorites  put*upon 
him,  and  the  dangers  of  assassination  to  which 
his  enemies   exposed  him.     At  length  he   was 
restored  to   the  Irish  Lord-lieutenantship,  and 
the  record  of  his  last  administration  is  chiefly  a 
record  of  measures  against  the  Roman  Catholics'. 
Charles,    indeed,    was    anxious    to     allow    the 
Catholics  as  much  toleration  as  possible, "  but 
the  fury  of  the  Titus  Oates  Plot  found  its  echo 
across  the  Irish   Sea.     Ormonde's  nature  was 
uot  one  which  lent   itself  to  excesses  of  any 


72        A  SHOBT  HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 

kind,  but  he  was  strongly  anti-Catholic,  and  to 
him  is  due  the  dishonor  of  sending  Plunket, 
the  Archbishop  of  Armagh,  to  his  trial  and 
death  in  England,  a  "  murder"  which,  as  Mr. 
Goldwin  Smith  says,  "  has  left  a  deep  stain  on 
the  ermine  of  English  justice." 

With  Jimies's  accession  the  treatment  of  the 
Catholics  changed  considerably.     Ormonde  was 
recalled  to  end  his  days  in  peaceful  retirement, 
and  his  place  was  taken  by  a  new  and  remark- 
able  figure,   the    bearer    of  an  historic  name. 
This   new    man  was  James    Talipot,    Earl    of 
Tyrconnel.     He  was,  while  a  boy,  in  Drogheda 
during  the  Cromwellian  sack,  and  the  memory 
of  that  fearful  hour  was  always  Avith  him.     He 
had  followed  the  Stuarts  into  exile  ;  he  was  the ' 
first  Roman  Catholic  Governor  of  Ireland  ap- 
pointed since  the  introduction  of  the  Protestant 
religion.     He  did  his  best  to  undo  the  severe 
anti-Catholic    leo-islation    which    marked     Or- 
monde's     last     administration.       That    he,     a 
Catholic  and  an  Irishman,   should  wish  to  see 
justice    and    religious    libei'ty    allowed    to   his 
countrymen  arid  the  companions  of  his  faith 
has  made  his  name  too  often  the  object  of  the 
obloquy  and  the  scorn  of  historians  who  are 
unwilling  to  see  liberty,   either  political  or  re- 
ligious,  enjoyed   by  any   but  themselves    and 
their  own  people  or  party.     The  war  between 
James    and    William    of   Orano-e    found    the 
Catholics  in  Ireland  entirely  on  the  Stuart  side, 
though  more  for  the  sake  of  Talbot  of  Tyrconnel 
than  of  the  English  monarch.     Talbot  might 
have    said     of     himself,     like     Shakespeare's 
English  Talbot,  that  he  was  "  but  shadow  of 
himself,"  and  that  "  his  substance,  sinews,  arms, 
and  strength "  lay  in  the  Irish  Catholics  who 


THE  RESTORATION.  73 

rallied  round   him   as  they  had  before  rallied 
round    an    earlier    wearer    of   the     name    of 
Tyrconnel.     For    a  time   it  seemed  as  if  this 
Irish  support   might  shoulder  James   into  his 
throne  again,   and  the   king  made  many  con- 
cessions to  encourage  such  allegiance.  Poyning's 
Act  was   formally    repealed,    and  a    measure 
passed  restoring  the  dispossessed  Irish  to  their 
property.     A    large    army    came    over    from 
France  to  Ireland  to  light  for  the  Stuart,  under 
the  command  of  one  of  the  bravest  and  vainest 
soldiers  that  ever  fought  a">fidd,  St.  Ruth.   But 
the  battle  of  the  Boyne  ririiie(i  alike  the  Stuart 
cause    and   the    hojies    of  its  Irish  adherents. 
Ginckel,   William's  ablest  general,  took  Ath- 
lone,  defeated  the  French  and  Irish  at  Aughrim, 
where  the  glorious  and  vainglorious  St.  TJuth 
was  slain,  and  invested  Limerick.    In  Limerick 
Tyrconnel    died,    and    at    Limerick    the     last 
struggle   was   made.     The  city   was   held   ])y 
Patrick  Sarsfield,   a  brave  Catholic  gentleman 
and  a  gifted  soldier.     He  defended  Limerick  so 
Avell  against  hopeless  odds  that  he  was  able  to 
wring  from  his  enemies  a  treaty  providing  that 
the  Roman  Catholics  of  Ireland   should  enjoy 
the  privilege  of  religious  freedom,  and  giving 
Kino;    James's    followers    the    right    of    their 
estates.     When  the  treaty  was  signed,    Sars- 
field   surrendered  the    city  and  marched    out 
with  all  the  honors  of  war.     Outside  the  city 
the  flags  of  England  and  France  were  set  up, 
and  the  defenders    of   Limerick  were  oflered 
their  choice  of  service  under  either  standard. 
Ginckel    had    the   mortification   of  seeing  the 
flower  of  the  army  rally  beneath  the  lilies   of 
Gaul,   only   a    few   regiments    ranging   them- 
selves   beneath  the  English  standard.     These 


74       A  SHOU  T  HtSTOR Y  OF  IRELAND. 

Irish  soldiers  did  splendid  service  in  the  land 
to  which  they  gave  their  snords.  Their  names 
became  famous  in  France,  in  Spain,  in  Austria, 
and  in  Russia,  and  on  manv  a  field  from 
Fontenoy  to  Kamilies  and  Laufeldt  the  Irish 
bri":ades  fousrht  out  for  an  alien  cause,  and  be- 
neath  a  foreign  flag,  the  old  quarrel  of  their 
race.  Sarsfield  himself  died  bravely  at  Landen, 
three  years  after  the  surrender  of  Limerick. 
It  is  said  that  the  dying  man  looked  at  his 
hand,  red  with  his  own  blood,  and  said,  "  Would 
God. that  this  were  shed  for  Ireland."  All  that 
he  had  done  for  his  country  had  been  done  in 
vain.  The  treaty  that  he  had  secured  by  his 
gallant  defence  of  Limerick,  the  treaty  that 
had  been  confirmed  and  even  amplified  by 
William  himself,  was  liroken  and  set  aside. 
Mr.  Froude  seems  to  think  that  the  Irish  ought 
to  have  been  aware  that  the  English  could  not 
be  expected  to  keep  faith  with  them  over  such 
a  treaty.  To  such  sorry  justification  for  such 
a  breach  of  faith  there  is  nothing  t(j  say.  The 
treason  shows  worse  when  it  is  remembered 
that  after  the  treaty  was  signed  an  army  of 
reinforcements  arrived  in  the  Shannon.  Had 
these  come  some  days  earlier,  the  siege  of 
Limerick  must  inevitably  have  been  raised. 
Even  as  it  was,  Ginckel  greatly  feared  that 
Sarsfield  might  seize  the  opjjortunity  to  renew 
the  war.  But  Sarsfield  honorably  abided  by 
his  word.  The  treaty  was  violated  ;  all  the  for- 
feited lands  were  reconfiscated  and  sold  hy 
auction  as  before,  for  the  benefit  of  the  state, 
to  English  corporations  aj»d  Dublin  merchants. 
At  William's  death  the  Catholics  were  the 
owners  of  less  than  one  seventh  of  the  whole 
area  of  Ireland.     William  determined  to  make 


THE  RESTORATION.  76 

Ireland  Protestant  by  penal  laws.  Under  these 
laws  Catholics  could  not  sit  in  the  Irish 
Parliament,  or  vote  members  to  it.  They  were 
excluded  from  the  aniiy  and  navy,  the  coipora- 
tions,  the  magistracy,  the  bar,  the  bench,  the 
grand  juries,  and  the  vestries.  They  could 
not  be  sheriffs  or  soldiers,  gamekeepers  or 
constables.  They  were  forbidden  to  own  any 
arms,  and  any  two  justices  or  sheriffs  might  at 
any  time  issue  a  search  warrant  for  arms.  The 
discovery  of  any  kind  of  weapon  rendered  its 
Catholic  owner  liable  to  fines,  imprisonment, 
whipping,  or  the  pillory.  They  could  not  own 
a  horse  worth  more  than  five  pounds,  and  any 
Protestant  tendering  that  sum  could  compel 
his  Catholic  neighbor  to  sell  his  steed.  No 
education  whatever  was  allowed  to  Catholics. 
A  Catholic  could  not  go  to  the  university ;  he 
might  not  be  the  guardian  of  a  child  ;  he  might 
not  keep  a  school,  or  send  his  children  to  l>e 
educated  abroad,  or  teach  himself.  No  Catholic 
might  buy  land,  or  inherit,  or  receive  it  as  a 
gift  from  Protestants,  or  hold  life  annuities  or 
leases  for  more  than  thirty-one  years,  or  any 
lease  on  such  terms  as  that  the  profits  of  the 
land  exceeded  one  third  the  value  of  the  land. 
If  a  Catholic  purchased  an  estate,  the  first 
Protestant  who  informed  against  him  became 
its  proprietor.  The  eldest  son  of  a  Catholic, 
upon  apostatizing,  became  heir  at  law  to  the 
whole  estate  of  his  father,  and  reduced  his 
father  to  the  position  of  a  mere  life  tenant. 
A  wife  who  apostatized  was  immediately  freed 
from  her  husband's  control,  and  assigned  a 
certain  proportion  of  her  husband's  property. 
Any  child,  however  young,  who  professed  to 
be  a  Protestant,  was  at   once  taken  from  hi? 


76        A  SHO RT  HISTOB  Y  OF  IRELAND. 

father's  care,  and  a  certain  proportion  of  his 
father's  property  assigned  to  him.  In  fact, 
the  Catholics  were  excluded,  in  their  o\vn 
country,  from  every  profession,  from  every 
<>overnment  office  fromi  the  hio;hest  to  the 
lowest,  and  from  almost  every  duty  or  privilege 
of  a  citizen.  It  was  laid  down  from  the  bench 
by  Lord-chancellor  Bowes  and  Chief-justice 
Robinson  that  "  the  law  does  not  suppose  any 
such  person  to  exist  as  an  Irish  Roman  Catholic," 
and  proclaimed  from  the  pulpit  by  Dopping, 
Bishop  of  Meath,  that  Protestants  were  not 
bound  to  keep  faith  with  Papists.  We  are  re- 
minded, as  we  read,  of  Judge  Taney's  famous 
decision  in  the  American  Dred  Scott  case,  that 
a  l)lack  man  had  no  riijhts  which  a  white  man 
was  l)()und  to  respect.  Ha})pily,  humanity  and 
civilization  are  in  the  end  too  nmch  for  the 
Doppings  and  Taneys.  It  is  hard  for  a  more 
enlightened  age  to  believe  that  such  laws  as 
these  were  ever  })assed,  or,  being  passed,  were 
ever  practised.  It  was  well  said  that  the 
penal  code  could  not  have  been  practised  in  hell, 
or  it  would  have  overturned  the  kingdom  of 
Beelzebul).  But  these  laws,  by  which  the 
child  was  taught  to  l)ebave  himself  proudly 
against  the  ancient,  and  the  base  against  the 
honorable,  were  rigorouslv  enforced  in  Ireland. 
The  records  of  the  House  of  Lords  are  full  of 
the  vain  appeals  of  Catholic  gentlemen  against 
their  dispossession  by  some  claimant,  perhaps 
an  unworthy  memlier  of  their  family,  perhaps 
a  bitter  enemy,  and  j)erha})s  a  hitherto  unknown 
"discoverer,"  who  had  })ut  on  the  guise  of 
ostentatious  Protestantism  as  a  cloak  for 
plunder.  In  often-quoted,  often-to-be-quoted 
words,  Burke,    in  later  years,   denounced   the 


THE  RESTORATION.  77 

penal  code  for  its  "  vicious  perfectioii."  "  For," 
isaid  he,  "I  must  do  it  justice  :  it  was  a  complete 
system,  full  of.  coherence  and  consistency,  well 
digested  and  well  composed  in  all  its  parts. 
It  was  a  machine  of  wise  and  elalwratc  con- 
trivance, and  as  well  fitted  for  the  oppression, 
impoverishment,  and  degradation  of  a  people, 
and  the  debasement  in  them  of  human  nature 
itself,  as  ever  proceeded  from  the  i)erverted 
ingenuity  of  man."  It  is  encouraging  to  think 
that  even  und^er  such  laws  the.  spirit  of  the 
people  was  not  wholly  annihilated.  The 
country  ch«ng  to  its  proscribed  faith ;  the 
ministers  of  that  faith  braved  shame  and 
persecution  and  death  in  their  unswerving 
allegiance  to  their  scattered  flocks.  They 
fought  bruvely  against  the  oppression  which 
would  have  enforced  iijnorance  and  all  its 
attendant  evils  upon  an  unhappy  people.  When 
no  Catholic  might  open  a  school,  the  })riests 
established  what  were  knowiif-as  hedge  schools. 
By  the  roadside  and  on  thej^iillside,  in  ditches 
and  l)ehind  hedges,  the  children  of  the  people 
cowered  about  their  pastors,  fearfully  and 
eagerly  striving  to  attain  that  knowledge  which 
the  harsh  laws  denied  them.  In  one»  other 
instance  the  penal  laws  failed.  They  could 
take  away  the  Catholic's  land,  his  horse,  his 
life  ;  they  could  hang  his  priests  and  burn  his 
place  of  worship ;  they  could  refuse  him  all 
education  ;  they  could  deny ^  him  all  rights  be- 
fore the  law  except  the  right  to  be  robbed  and 
hanged;  but  they  could  not  compel  him  to 
change  his  faith,,  and  thev  could  not  succeed  in 
making  cAcry  Protestant  in  Ireland  a  willing 
creature  of  the  ncAv  code.  By  the  code,  aijy 
marriage  between  a  Catholic  and  a  Protestant 


78        A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 

was,  jy  the  fact  of  the  husband  and  wife  being 
of  opposite  faiths,  null  and  void,  without  any 
process  of  law  whatever.  A  man  might  leave 
his  wife,  or  a  woman  her  husband,  after  twenty 
years  of  marriage,  in  such  a  case,  and  bring  a 
legal  bastardy  on  all  their  offspring.  But,  for 
the  sake  of  human  honor,  it  is  consolatory  to 
rememl)er  that  the  instances  in  which  this  ever 
occurred  were  very  rare.  The  law  might  / 
sanction  the  basest  treachery,  but  it  was  not 
able  to  make  its  subjects  treacherous. 

The  evils  of  the  penal  code  were  further  sup- 
plemented by  the  statutory  destruction  of  Irish 
trade.  Under  Charles  I.,  Strafford  had  done 
his  best  to  ruin  the  Irish  woollen  manufacturers 
in  order  to  benefit  the  English  clothiers.  Under 
Charles  II.  the  importation  of  Irish  cattle  or 
sheep  or  swine  was  prohibited.  In  1663  Ire- 
land was  left  out  of  the  act  for  the  encouraiije- 
ment  of  trade,  so  that  all  the  carrying  trade  in 
Irish-built  ships  with  any  pai-t  of  his  majesty's 
dominions  was  prevented.  But  it  was  left  to 
William  to  do  the  worst.  In  1696  all  direct 
trade  from  Ireland  with  the  British  colonies  was 
forbidden,  and  a  revival  of  the  woollen  trade 
was  crushed  out  by  an  act  Avhich  prohibited  the 
export  of  Irish  wool  or  woollen  goods  from  any 
Irish  port  except  Cork,  Drogheda,  Dublin, 
Kinsale,  Waterford,  and  Youghal,  to  any  port 
in  the  world  except  Milford,  Chester,  Liver- 
pool, and  certain  ports  in  the  Bristol  Channel, 
under  a  penalty  of  £500  and  the  forfeiture  of 
both  ship  and  cargo. 

CHAPTER  VII. 

•  THE  EIGHTEEXTH  CENTURY. 

It  has  been  happily  said  that  Ireland  has  no 


THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY.  79 

history  during  the  greater  part  of  the  eighteenth 
tenturj.  What  Burke  called  "the  ferocious 
legislation  of  Queen  Anne  "  had  done  its  work 
of  humiliation  to  the  full.  For  a  hundred  years 
the  country  was  crushed  into  quiescent  misery. 
Against  the  tyranny  which  made  war  at  once 
upon  their  creed,  their  intellect,  and' their  trade, 
the  Irish  had  no  strength  to  struggle ;  neither 
in  1715,  nor  in  1745,  did  the  Irish  Catholics 
raise  a  hand  for  the  Pretenders.  The  evidence 
of  Arthur  Young  shows  how  terribly  the  con- 
dition of  the  peasantry  had  sunk  when  he  is  able 
to  state  that  ''Landlords  of  consequence  have 
assured  me  that  many  of  their  cotters  would 
think  themselves  honored  by  having  their  wives 
and  daughters  sent  for  to  the  bed  of  their  mas- 
ters ;  a  mark  of  slavery  vi^hich  proves  the  op- 
pression under  whiiih  such  people  must  live." 
To  add  to  the  wretchedness  of  the  people,  a  ter- 
rible famine  ravaged  the  country  in  1741,  the 
horrors  of  which  almost  rival,  in  ghastliness, 
those  of  the  famine  of  1847.  Great  numbers 
died ;  great  numbers  tied  from  the  seemingly 
accursed  country  to  recruit  the  armies  of  the 
Continent,  and  fpund  death  less  dreadful  on 
many  well-fought  iields  than  in  the  shape  of 
plague  or  famine  in  their  own  land.  Such  ele- 
ments of  degradation  and  despair  naturally 
begot  all  sorts  of  secret  societies  among  the 
peasantry  from  north  to  south.  White-boys, 
Oak-boys,  and  Hearts  of  Steel  banded  against 
the  land  tyranny,  and  held  together  for  lon^ 
enough  in  spite  of  the  strenuous  ettbrts  of  the 
government  to  put  them  down.  If  the  military 
force,  said  Lord  Chesterfield,  "had  killed  half 
as  many  landlords  as  it  had  AVhite-boys,  it 
would  have' contributed  more  effectually  to  re- 


80        A  SHOR  T  HISTOR  Y  OP  IRELAND. 

store  quiet ;  for  the  poor  people  in  Ireland  are 
worse  used  than  negroes  by  their  masters,  and 
deputies  of  deputies." 

Bad  as  the  condition  of  Ireland  was,  the 
English  in  Ireland  proposed  to  make  it  worse 
by  depriving  it  of  what  poor  remains  of  legis- 
lative indc})endence  it  still  possessed.  So  early 
as  1703,  a  petition  in  favor  of  union  with  Eng- 
land, and  the  abolition  of  the  Irish  Parliament, 
w^as  presentetl  to  Queen  Anne  ;  its  prayer  was 
rejected  for  the  time,  but  the  idea  was  working 
in  the  minds  of  those — and  they  were  many — 
who  wished  to  see  Ireland  stripped  of  all  pre- 
tence at  indei)endence  .afforded  by  the  existence 
of  a  separate  Parliament,  even  though  that  Par- 
liament were  entirely  Protestant.  Seventeen 
years  later,  in  the  sixth  year  of  George  I.,  a 
vigorous  l)low  was  dealt  at  the  independence  of 
the  Irish  Parliament  by  an  act  which  not  only 
deprived  the  Irish  House  of  Lords  of  any  ap- 
pellate jurisdiction,  but  declared  that  the  Eng- 
lish Parliament  had  the  right  to  make  laws  to 
bind  the  })eoi)le  of  the  kingdom  of  Ireland. 
The  "  heads  of  a  bill "'  might  indeed  be  brought 
in  in  either  House.  If  agreed  to,  they  were 
carried  to  the  \  iceroy,  who  gave  them  to  his 
Privy  Council  to  alter  if  they  chose,  and  send 
to  England.  They  were  subject  to  alteration 
by  the  English  Attorney-general,  and,  when 
approved  by  the  English  Privy  Council,  sent 
back  to  Ireland,  wheie  the  Irish  Houses  could 
either  accept  or  reject  them  ia  toto,  but  had  no 
power  to  change  them. 

The  condition  of  the  Irish  Parliament  all 
through  the  eighteenth  century  is  truly  pitiable. 
Its  existence  as  a  legislative  body  is  a  huge 
sham,  a  ghastly  simulacrum.     It  slowly  drifted 


THE  EIGHTEENTH  GENTVBY.  81 

into  the  custom  of  siW^ing  but  once  in  every  two 
years,  to  vote  the  money  bills  for  the  next  two 
twelvemonths.  The  Irish  Exchequer  derived 
half  its  receipts  from  the  Restoration  grant  of 
the  excise  and  customs  ;  and  the  greater  part  of . 
this  money"  was  wasted  upon  royal  mistresses, 
upon  royal  bastards,  and  upon  royal  nominees. 
The  Parliament  was  torn  b}'^  factions,  which  the 
English  government  ingeniously  played  off 
against  each  other ;  it  was  crowded  with  the  sup- 
ple placemen  of  the  government,  who  were  well 
rewarded  for  their  obedient  votes  ;  the  bulk  of 
the  House  was  made  up.  of  nominees  of  the 
Protestant  landlords.  The  Opposition  could 
never  turn  out  the  Administration,  for  the 
Administration  was  composed  of  the  irremov- 
able and  irresponsible  Lords-justices  of  the 
Privy  Council  and  certain  officers  of  state. 
The  Opposition,  such  as  it  was,  was  composed 
of  Jacobites,  who  dreamed  of  a  Stuart  restora- 
tion, and  of  a  few  men  animated  by  a  patriotic 
belief  in  their  country's  rights.  These  men 
were  imbued  with  the  principles  which  had 
set  forth  in  the  end  of  the  seventeenth  century 
by  William  Molyneux,  the  friend  of  Locke, 
who,  in  his  "Case  of  Ireland,"  was  the  tirst  to 
formulate  Ireland's  constitutional  claim  to  in- 
dependent'existence.  His  book  was  burned  by 
the  English  Parliament,  but  the  doctrines  it 
set  forth  were  not  to  be  so  destroyed.  During 
the  reigns  of  the  first  two  Georges,  the  Patriot 
Party  had  the  support  of  the  gloomy  genius 
and  the  fierce  indignation  of  the  man  whose 
name  is  coupled  with  that  of  Molyneux  in  the 
opening  sentences  of  Grattan's  famous  speech 
on  the  triumph  of  Irish  independence.  Swift, 
weary  of  English  parties,  full  of  melancholy 


82        A  SMORl  HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 

memories  of  St.  John  and  Harley  and  the 
scattered  Tory  chiefs,  had  come  back  to  Ireland 
to  try  his  fighting  soul  in  the  troublous  con- 
fusion of  Irish  politics.  It  has  been  asserted 
over  and  over  again  that  Swift  had  very  little 
real  love  for  the  country  of  his  birth.  Whether 
he  loved  Ireland  or  not  is  little  to  the  purpose, 
for  he  did  her  very  sterling  service.  He  was 
the  first  to  exhort  Ireland  to  use  her  own 
manufactures,  and  he  was  unsuccessfully 
prosecuted  by  the  state  for  the  pamphlet  in 
which  he  gave  this  advice.  When  Wood 
received  the  authority  of  the  English  Parlia- 
ment to  deluge  Ireland  with  copper  money  of 
his  own  making,  it  was  Swift's  "Drapier's 
Letters  "  which  made  Wood  and  his  friends  the 
laughing-stock  of  the  world,  and  averted  the 
evil.  In  Swift's  "  Modest  Proposal  "  we  have 
the  most  valuable  evidence  of  the  misery 
of  the  country.  He  suggests,  with  savage 
earnestness,  that  the  children  of  the  Irish 
peasant  should  be  reared  for  food ;  and  urges 
that  the  best  of  these  should  be  reserved  for 
the  landlords,  who,  as  they  had  already 
devoured  the  substance  of  the  people,  had  the 
best  right  to  devour  the  flesh  of  their  children. 

Even  as  the  most  conspicuous  supporter  of 
the  Irish  interest  during  the  first  half  of  the 
century  was  the  Dean  of  St.  Patrick's,  the  two 
most  remarkable  supporters  of  the  English 
"interest"  in  Ireland  in  the  eighteenth  century 
were  both  Churchmen,  the  Primate  Boulter 
and  the  Primate  Stone.  Compared  to  Stone, 
Boulter  appears  an  honest  and  an  honorable 
man.  He  was  only  shallow,  arrogant,  and 
capricious,  quite  incapable  of  the  slightest 
sympathy  with  any  people  or  party  but   his 


THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTUR  Y.  83 

own— a  man  of  some  statesmanship,  which  was 
entirely  at  the  service  of  the  government,  and 
which  never  allowed  him  to  make  any  considera- 
tion for  the  wants,  the  wishes,  or  the  sufferings 
of  the  Irish  peo})le.  Perhaps  the  best  that  can 
be  said  of  him  is,  that  while  belongingto  the  Eng- 
lish Church  he  did  not  wholly  neglect  its  teach- 
ings and  its  duties,  or  live  a  life  in  direct  defiance 
of  its  conmiands,  which  is  saying  a  good  deal  for 
such  a  man  in  such  a  time.  So  much  cannot  be 
said  of  his  successor  in  the  headship  of  the 
Irish  ecclesiastical  system,  Primate  Stone. 
The  grandson  of  a  jailer,  he  might  have 
deserved  admiration  for  his  rise  if  he  had  not 
carried  with  him  into  the  high  places  of  the 
Church  a  spirit  stained  by  most  of  the  crimes 
over  which  his  ancestor  was  appointed  warder. 
In  an  age  of  corrupt  politics,  he  was  oonspicuous 
as  a  corrupt  politician :  in  a  profligate  epoch, 
he  was  eminent  for  profligac}'.  In  the  basest 
days  of  the  Roman  Empire  he  would  have 
been  remarkable  for  the  variety  of  his  sins  ; 
and  the"  grace  of  his  person,  which  caused  him 
to  be  styled  in  savage  mockery  the  "  Beauty  of 
Holiness,"  coupled  with  his  ingenuity,  in  pan- 
dering to  the  passions  of  his  friends,  would  have 
made  him  a  serious  rival  to  Petronius  at  the 
court  of  Nero. 

The  vear  that  Swift  died,  1745,  was  the  first 
year  of  the  vice-royalty  of  Lord  Chesterfield, 
one  of  the  few  l)right  spots  in  the  dark  account 
of  Ireland  in  the  eighteenth  century.  If  all 
viceroys  had  been  as  calm,  as  reasonable,  and 
as  considerate  as  the  author  of  the  famous 
"  Letters  "  showed  himself  to  be  in  his  dealings 
with  the  people  over  whom  he  was  placed,  the 
history   of  the  suc(?eeding  century  and  a  half 


84        A  SHOUT  HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 

might  have  been  very  different.  But  when 
ChesteVfieklV  viceioyalty  passed  away,  the 
temperate  policy  he  i)ur8ued  passed  away  as 
well,  and  has  seldom  ])oen  resumed  by  the  long 
succession  of  viceroys  who  have  governed  and 
misgoverned  the  country  since. 

In  the  meanwhile,  a  new  spirit  was  gradually 
coming  over  the  country.  Lucas,  the  first 
Irishman,  in  the  w^ords  of  the  younger  Grattan, 
"who,  after  Swift,  dared  to  write  freedom," 
had  founded  the  Freeman' s  Journal,  a  journal 
which  ventured  in  dangerous  times  to  advocate 
the  cause  of  the  Irish  ])eople,  and  to  defy  the 
an<>er  of  the  Ensrlish  "  interest."  In  the  first 
number,  which  appeared  on  Saturday,  Sei)tem- 
ber  10,  1763,  and  which  bore  an  engraving  of 
Hiliernia  with  a  wreath  in  her  right  hand  and  a 
rod  in  her  left,  Lucas  boldly  advocated  the  duty 
and  diijnity  of  a  free  press,  and  denounced  un- 
der tlie  guise  of  "Turkish  Tyranny,"  "The 
Tyranny  of  French  Despotism,"  and  "  The  Ten 
Tyrants  of  Rome,"  the  ministries  and  the 
creature  whom  his  unsparing  eloquence  assailed. 
The  Patriot  Party,  too,  was  ra})idly  increasing 
its  following  and  its  infiuence  in  the  country. 
The  patriotic  party  in  Parliament  had  found  a 
brilliant  leader  in  Henry  Flood,  a  gifted  politi- 
cian, who  thought  himself  a  poet,  and  who  was 
certainly  an  orator.  Flood  was  the  son  of  the 
Irish  Chief-justice  of  the  King's  Bench.  He 
had  been  educated  at  Trinity  College  and  at  Ox- 
ford, and  nuich  of  his  youth  was  devoted  to  the 
study  of  oratory  and  the  jnirsuit  of  poetr3^ 
He  wrote  an  ode  to  Fame,  which  was  perhaps 
as  unlucky  in  reaching  its  address  as  that  poem 
to  Posterity  of  which  poor  Jean  Baptiste  Rous- 
seau  was   so   proud.      But   his   oratory  was  a 


THE  mOHTEENTH  CENTURY.  85 

jifenuiiie  gift,  which  he  carefully  cultivated.  We 
hear  of  his  learning  speeches  of  Cicero  by 
heart,  and  writing  out  long  passages  of  Demos- 
thenes and  ^Eschines,  His  character  was  kindly, 
sweet-tempered,  and  truthful.  He  was  ambit- 
ious because  he  was  a  man  of  geniur<,  but  his 
ambition  was  for  his  country  rather  than  for 
himself,  and  he  served  her  with  a  daring  si)irit, 
which  only  the  profound  statesmanlike  qualities 
of  his  intellect  prevented  from  becoming  reck- 
less. In  1759,  then  in  his  twent^'-seventh 
year,  a  married  man  with  a  large  fortune,  he 
entered  public  life,  never  to  leave  it  till  the  end 
of  his  career.  He  came  into  Parliament  as 
member  fcM"  Kilkenny,  and  almost  inmiediately 
became  a  prominent  member  of  the  Opposition. 
His  n)aiden  speech  was  a  vigorous  attack  upon 
the  corrupt  and  profligate  Primate  Stone.  In 
the  hands  of  Flood,  al)ly  seconded  by  Cliarles 
Lucas,  the  0})position  began  to  take  shai)e,  and 
to  become  a  serious  political  power,  lender 
his  1)rilliant  and  skilful  chieftainship,  the  "  Patri- 
ots," as  the  i)arty  who  followed  him  were  called 
in  scorn  by  their  enemies,  and  in  admiration  by 
their  allies,  made  rei)eated  assaults  upon  the 
hated  pension  list.  After  they  had  been  de- 
feated jigain  and  again.  Flood  found  a  more 
successful  means  of  harassing  the  Administra- 
tion by  turnino;  the  attention  of  his  i)artv  to 
parliamentary  reform.  The  time  was  well 
chosen.  The  English  government  was  begin- 
ning to  be  troubled  by  its  own  greedy  placemen, 
who  were  always  ready  to  go  with  light  hearts 
into  the  Opposition  lobby  if  the}^  could  nolt 
squeeze  all  they  wanted  out  of  the  government. 
By  taking  adyantage  of  the  discontent  of 
placemen,  the  Patriots  were  able  to  induce  the ' 


86        A  SHO-RT  HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 

House  to  declare  that  they  alone  had  the  right 
to  initiate  a  money  bill,  and  to  refuse  to  accept 
a  money  bill  brought  in  by  the  English  or  Irish 
Privy  Council.  It  is  bitterly  to  be  regretted 
that  Flood  allowed  himself  to  be  led  away  from 
the  Patriot  Party,  and  to  accept  a  government 
sinecure.  There  is  no  need  to  doubt  that  when 
Flood  accepted  the  office  of  vice-treasurer  he 
believed  that  he  was  acting  on  the  whole  in  the 
interests  of  the  cause  he  represented.  He  had 
just  made  a  great  political  triumph.  He  had 
driven  out  of  office  a  most  obnoxious  and  un- 
popular lord-lieutenant.  Lord  Townsend,  and 
Townsend's  place  had  been  taken  by  Lord 
Harcourt,  a  reasonable  and  able  man,  who 
seemed  likely  to  be  in  sympathy  with  Flood's 
views  as  to  the  independence  of  Parliament. 
Flood  may  well  be  assumed  to  have  reasoned 
that  a  place  under  government  would  offer  him 
greater  opportunities  for  urging  his  cause. 
But,  whatever  his  reasons,  the  step  was  fatally 
ill-advised ;  he  lost  the  confidence  of  the 
country,  and  ruined  his  position  as  leader. 
But  this  was  the  less  to  be  regretted  that  it  gave 
his  place  as  leader  of  the  Patriot  Party  to  a 
greater  orator  and  a  nobler  man — ^to  Henry 
Grattan. 

Grattan  was  born  in  1750,  in  Dublin.  His 
years  of  early  manhood  were  passed  in  Lon- 
don, studying  for  the  bar.  Like  Flood,  he  be- 
lieved himself  destined  to  be  a  poet ;  but  when, 
in  1775,  he  was  nominated  to  represent  Charle- 
mont  in  the  Irish  Parliament  by  the  owner  of 
the  borough.  Lord  Charlemont,  he  discovered 
where  his  real  genius  lay.  He  and  Flood  had 
been  close  friends  and  political  allies  until 
Flood's  acceptance  of   the   vice-treasurership. 


:-^''- 


THE  mQHTEENTH  CENTURY.  87 

This  seemed  to  Grattan  the  basest  political 
apostasy.  The  alliance  between  the  two  orators 
was  definitely  broken  off;  the  friendship  was 
finally  severed  in  the  fierce  discussion  that  took 
place  between  them  in  the  House  of  Commons 
some  years  later,  when  Flood  tauntingly  de- 
scribed Grattan  as  a  ""mendicant  patriot,"  and 
Grattan  painted  Flood  as  a  traitor  in  one  of  the 
most  crushing  and  pitiless  pieces  of  invective 
that  have  ever  belonged  to  oratory.  Such  a 
quarrel  between  such  men  was  the  more  to  be 
regrette(J  because  each  had"  the  same  end  in 
view,  and  each  had  special  qualifications  for 
furthering  that  end  which  were  not  possessed 
by  thei  other. 

Grattan  w^as  now  leader  of  the  Patriots. 
It  was  his  ambition  to  secure  legislative  in- 
dependence for  thie  Irish  Parliament.  The  war 
with  the  American  colonies  gave  him  the 
opportunity  of  realizing  his  ambition.  A 
large  force  of  Volunteers  had  been  organized  in 
Ireland  to  defend  the  island  from  the  attacks 
of  the  terrible  Paul  Jones,  and  the  Volunteers 
and  their  leaders  were  all  in  sympathy  with  the 
Patriot  Party.  For  the  first  time  since  the 
surrender  of  Limerick  there  was  an  armed 
force  in  Ireland  able  and  willing  to  sustain  the 
national  cause.  There  were  60,000  men  under 
arms,  under  the  leadership  of  the  gifted  and 
patriotic  Lord  Charlemont.  Among  their 
leaders  were  Flood  himself  and  Henry  Grattan. 
The  Volunteers  formed  themselves  into  an 
organized  convention  for  the  purpose  of 
agitating  the  national  grievances.  Grattan  was 
not,  indeed,  a  member  of  this  convention,  but 
he  saw  that  with  the  existence  of  the  Volunteers 
had  come, the  hour  to  declare  the  independence 


88       A  SHOUT  HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 

of  the  Irish  Parliament,  and  he  seized  upon 
the  opportunity.  lie  had  an  army  at  his  back  ; 
the  Eno-lish  Government  was  still  striving;  Avith 
"Mr.  AVashington"  and  his  rebels,  and  it  had 
to  give  way.  All  that  Grattan  asked  for  was 
granted ;  the  hateful  Act  of  the  6th  George  I. 
was  repealed,  and  Grattan  was  able  to  address 
a  free  people  and  wish  Ireland  as  a  nation  a 
perpetual  existence. 

But  now  that  the  desires  of  the  Patriot 
Party  had  been  apparently  fulfilled,  by  a  curious 
example  of  the  law  of  historical  reaction  the 
popularity  of  Grattan  began  to  wane,  and  that 
of  Flood  to  wax  anew.  The  English  hold 
over  the  Irish  Parliament  had  been  based  first 
upon  Poynings's  Act,  and  then  upon  a  Declara- 
tory Act  asserting  the  depender.ce  of  the 
Irish  Parliament.  It  was  this  Declaratory  Act  that 
Grattan,  aided  by  the  Volunteers,  had  caused 
to  be  repealed,  and  he  and  his  party  contended 
that  by  this  re})eal  England  resigned  her  right 
over  the  Irish  Prrliament.  Flood  and  his 
friends  maintained  that  the  repeal  of  the 
Declaratory  Act  was  not  enough,  and  they 
would  not  rest  until  they  had  obtained  a  fuller 
and  more  formal  Renunciation  Act.  There 
were  other  difl'erences  between  Flood  and 
Grattan.  Grattan  was  all  in  favor  of  the  dis- 
bandment  and  dispersal  of  the  Volunteers. 
Flood  was  for  still  keeping  them  in  armed 
existence.  Grattan  had  urged  that  their  work 
had  been  done,  and  that  their  presence  was  a 
praBtorian  menace  to  the  newly  acquired  liber- 
ties. Flood  believed  that  their  co-operation 
was  still  needful  for  the  further  securing  of 
Irish  liberty.  Yet  it  is  curious  to  remember 
that   Grattan  was  the    advocate    of    Catholic 


THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY.  89 

Emancipation,  and  that  Flood  was  strenuously 
opposed  to  it.  Grattan  carried  his  point,  and 
the  Volunteers  disbanded  and  dispersed,  very 
much  to  the  disappointment  of  Flood  and  the 
indignation  of  one  of  the  most  curious  political 
figures  of  the  time,  and  one  of  the  most  re- 
markable of  the  many  remarkable  ecclesiastics 
who  played  a  part  in  this  period  of  Irish 
history.  This  was  the  Earl  of  Bristol  and 
Bishop  of  Derry,  a  son  of  the  Lord  Hervey 
whom  Pope  strove  to  make  eternally  infamous 
by  his  nickname  of  Sporus,  and  who  has  left 
such  living  pictures  of  the  court  of  the  second 
George  in  the  brilliant  malignancy  of  his  un- 
rivalled memoirs.  The  bishop  was  a  cultured, 
desperate  dandy,  a  combination  of  the  typical 
French  abbe  of  the  last  century  with  the  con- 
ventional soldier  of  fortune.  He  loved  gorgeous 
dresses  ;  he  loved  to  be  prominent  in  all  things. 
The  Volunteers  delio-hted  his  wild  imagination. 
He  fancied  himself  the  leader  of  a  great  rebellion, 
and  he  ba})bled  to  every  one  of  his  scheme  with 
ostentatious  folly.  But  though  he  could  com- 
mand popularity  among  the  Volunteers,  he 
could  not  command  the  Volunteers  themselves. 
They  remained  under  the  guidance  of  Charle- 
mont  and  Flood,  and  when  Flood  failed  in 
carrying  the  Volunteer  Reform  Bill  for  en- 
larging the  franchise,  the  Volunteers  peaceably 
dissolved.  The  bishop  drifted  Out  of  Dublin, 
drifted  into  Naples,  lived  a  wild  life  there  for 
many  years,  became  a  lover  of  Lady  Hamilton's, 
and  died  in  Rome  in  1803. 

While  it  lasted  the  free  Irish  Parliament 
was  worthy  of  its  creator.  It  gave  the 
Catholics  the  elective  franchise  of  which  they 
had  been  so  long  deprived  ;  up  to  this  time  no 


90         A  SHORl  HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 

Catholic  had  been  able  to  record  a  vote  in  favor 
of  the  men  who  were  hil)()ring  for  the  liberty 
of  their  country.  There  is  no  doubt  that  it 
would  in  time  have  allowed  Catholics  to  enter 
Parliament.  But  the  efforts  of  G rattan  after 
Catholic  Emancipation  failed,  and  their  failure 
strengthened  the  hands  of  the  United  Irish- 
men. 

The  name  "  United  Irishmen"  designated  a 
number  of  men  all  over  the  country,  who  had 
formed  themselves  into  clubs  for  the  purpose 
of  promoting  a  union  of  friendship  between 
Irishmen  of  every  religious  persuasion,  and  of 
forwarding  a  full,  fair,  and  adequate  representa- 
tion of  all  the  people  in  Parliament.  It  was 
in  the  beginning  a  })erfectly  loyal  body,  with  a 
Protestant  gentleman,  Mr.  Hamilton  Rowan, 
for  its  president.  James  Napper  Tandy,  a 
Protestant  Dublin  trader,  was  secretary.  The 
men  who  created  it  Avere  well  pleased  with  the 
success  of  Grattan's  efforts  at  the  independence 
of  the  Irish  Parliament,  but  they  were  deeply 
discontented  at  the  subsequent  disbandment  of 
the  Volunteers  and  Grattan's  comparative  in- 
action. The  simple  repeal  of  the  (ith  George 
I.  did  not  answer  iheir  aspirations  for  liberty, 
which  were  encouiaged  and  excited  by  the  out- 
break of  the  French  Revolution.  They  found 
a  leader  in  Theol)ald  AVolfe  Tone,  a  young 
barrister,  bra^e,  adventurous,  and  eloquent. 
Allied  with  him  was  Lord  Edward  Fitzgerald, 
the  chivalrous,  the  heroic,  who  had  lived  long 
in  France  and  tra\'clled  in  America,  who  was 
devoted  to  two  loves,  his  countrv  and  his 
beautiful  wife  Pamela,  the  daughter  of  Philippe 
Egalite  and  ]\Iadanie  de  Genlis.  A  third  leader 
was   Arthur    O'Connor,    Lord    Longueville's 


THE  maHTEENTIt  CENTUny.  91 

nephew,  and  member  for  Philipstown.  They 
were  all  young ;  they  were  all  Protestants ; 
they  were  all  dazzled  by  the  successes  of  the 
French  Revolution,  and  believed  that  the  House 
of  Hanover  might  be  as  easily  overturned  in 
Ireland  as  the  House  of  Capet  had  been  in 
France.  Wolfe  Tone  went  over  to  Paris  and 
pleaded  the  cause  of  Ireland  with  the  heads  of 
the  French  Directory.  His  eloquence  convinced 
them,  and  a  formidable  fleet  was  sent  over  to 
Ireland  under  victorious  Hoche.  But  the  winds 
which  had"  destroyed  the  Armada  dispersed  the 
French  squadron,  and  no  landing  was  ett'ected. 
The  government  was  aroused  and  alarmed  ;  the 
plans  of  the  United  Irishmen  were  betrayed ; 
martial  law  was  proclaimed.  Arthur  O'Connor 
was  at  once  arrested.  Edward  Fitzgerald  lay 
in  hiding  in  Dublin  for  some  davs  in  a  house 
in  Thomas  Street,  but  his  hiding-place  was 
betrayed.  He  defended  himself  desperately 
against  the  soldiers  who  came  to  take  him,  was 
severely  wounded,  and  died  of  his  wounds  in 
prison.  The  room  is  still  shown  in  which  the 
"gallant  and  seditious  Geraldine"  met  his 
death  ;  it  is  very  small,  ^d  the  struggle  must 
have  been  doubly  desperate  in  the  narrow 
space.  It  is  a  dismal  little  theatre  for  the 
tragedy  that  was  played  in  it. 

Before  the  rebellion  broke  out,  soldiers  and 
yeomen,  who  were  generally  Orangemen  of  the 
most  bitter  kind,  were  sent  to  live  at  free 
;  quarters  among  the  peasants  in  every  place 
where  any  possible  disaffection  was  suspected, 
and  the  licentiousness  and  brutal  cruelty  of 
these  men  did"  much  to  force  hundreds  of 
peasants  into  the  rising,  and  to  prompt  the 
tierce  retaliation  which  afterwards  characterized 


92        A  SHORT  HISTOIt  Y  OF  IHELAND. ' 

some  episodes  of  tlie  rebellion.  The  troops 
and  yeomen  lloiifged,  picketed,  and  tortured 
witli  pitch-caps  the  unhai)py  men,  and  violated 
the  unhappy  women,  who  were  at  their  mercy. 
The  Irish  .historian  would  indeed  be  fortunate 
who  could  write  that  on  the  Irish  side  the 
strujiiile  was  dissfraced  bv  no  sucli  crimes.  Un- 
hji})j)ily  this  cannot  l)e  said.  Here  it  cannot  be 
better  than  to  speak  in  j\Ir.  Lecky's  words  : 
"  Of  the  atrocities  committed  by  the  rebels 
during  the  bloody  month  when  the  rebellion 
was  at  its  height,  it  is  difficult  to  speak  too 
strongly,"  but  he  goes  on  to  say — he  is 
criticizing  Mr.  Fronde — "an  impartial  historian 
would  not  have  forgotten  that  they  were  perpe- 
trated by  undiscii)lined  men,  driven  to  madness 
by  a  long  course  of  savage  cruelties,  and  in 
most  Cases  without  the  knowledge  or  aj)proval 
of  their  leaders  ;  that  from  the  beginning  of  the 
struggle  the  yeoman  rarely  gave  (juarter  to  the 
rel)els  ;  that  with  the  one  horrible  exception  of 
Scullabogue  the  rebels  in  their  treatment  of 
women  contrasted  most  favora])ly  and  most  re- 
markably with  the  troojjs,  and  that  one  of  the 
earliest  episodes  of  the  struggre  was'  the 
butchery  near  Kildare  of  350  insurgents  who 
had  surrendered  on  the  express  i)i"oniise  that 
their  lives  should  be  s[)ared." 

It  should  be  borne  in  mind,  in  considering 
the  rebellion  of  171)8,  that  the  struggle  is  not 
to  be  considered  as  a  struggle  of  creed  against 
creed.  Protestants  began  and  organized  the 
movement,  and  it  is  estimated  by  Madden  that 
among  the  leaders  of  tlie  United  Irishmen 
Catholics  were  only  in  the  ])ro})drtion  of  one  to 
four  throughout  the  relu'llion.  On  the  other 
hand,  a  large  number  of  Catholics  were  strongly 


THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY.  93 

opposed  to  the  rebellion,  and  in  many  cases 
took  active  measures  against  it.  In  Wexford, 
unhappily,  the  efforts  of  the  Orangemen  suc- 
ceeded in  o:ivin«:  the  stru^o-le  there  much  of  the 
character  of  a  religious  war,  but  this  the 
revolution,  looked  at  as  a  whole,  never  was. 
It  was  a  national  movement,  an  uprising  against 
intolerable  grievances,  and  it  was  sympathized 
with  and  supported  by  Irishmen  of  all  religious 
denominations,  bound  together  by  common 
injuries  and  a  common  desire  to  redress  them. 

The  great  insurrection  which  was  to  have 
shattered  the  power  of  England  was  converted 
into  a  series  of  untimely,  abortive,  local  risings, 
of  which  the  most  successful  took  place  in 
Wexford.  The  rebels  fought  bravely,  but  the 
cause  was  now  hopeless.  The  Catholic  clergy 
came  fearlessly  to  the  front ;  many  of  the  little 
bands  of  rebels  were  led  into  action  by  priests 
of  the  Church.  Father  John  Mur})hy,  Father- 
Philip  Roche,  and  Father  Michael  Murphy 
were  among  the  bravest  and  ablest  of  the 
revolutionary  leaders.  Father  Michael  Murphy 
was  long  believed  by  his  men  to  ])e  invulneral)le, 
but  he  was  killed  by  a  cannon-ball  in  the  fight 
by  Arklow.  Father  Philip  Roche  also  died  on 
the  field.  Father  John  Murphy,  less  happy, 
was  captured  and  died  on  the  gallows ;  so  died 
Bagenal  Harvey,  of  Barry  Castle,  and  Anthony 
Perry,  both  Protestant  gentlemen  of  fortune 
who  had  been  forced  into  the  rebellion,  the  one 
by  government  suspicion,  the  other  by  imprison- 
ment, cruelty,  and  torture.  The  revolution 
was  crashed  out  with  pitiless  severity,  until 
the  deeds  of  the  English  soldiers  and  yeomanry 
became  hateful  in  the  eyes  of  the  viceroy  him- 
self,  Lord    Cornwallis.     "The  conversation," 


U       A  SnORT  IttSTORY  OF  IRELAND. 

he  writes  in  a  letter  to  General  Ross,  "of  the 
principal  persons  of  the  country  all  tends  to 
encourage  the  system  of  blood ;  and  the  con- 
versation, even  at  my  table,  where  you  will 
suppose  I  do  all  I  can  to  prevent  it,  always 
turns  on  hanging,  shooting,  burning,  etc.,  and 
if  a  })riest  has  been  put  to  death  the  greatest 
joy  is  expressed  by  the  whole  company.  So 
much  for  Ireland  and  my  wretched  situation." 

Cornwallis  attcd  mercifully.  He  proclaimed 
pardon  to  all  insurgents  guilty  of  rebellion 
only  who  should  surrender  their  arms  and  take 
the  oath  of  allegiance.  Of  the  state  prisoners, 
the  two  l)r<)tliers  Sheares  were  hanged  ;  McCann 
was  hanged  ;  Oliver  Bond  died  in  Newgate  ; 
O'Connor,  Thomas  Addis  Emmet  and  McNevin 
were  banished. 

The  insurrection  was  not  quite  over  when  a 
small  French  force,  under  General  lluni])ei"t, 
landed  in  Killala  Bay  and  entered  Longford. 
But  Humbert  was  surrounded  bv  the  English 
under  Cornwallis  and  General  Lake  at 
Ballinamuck,  and  surrendered  at  discretion. 
The  French  were  treated  as  prisoners  of  Avar, 
but  the  insurgent  jjcasantry  were  slaughtered 
without  quarter. 

There  was  still  one  more  scene  in  the  drama 
of  '98.  A  French  squadron,  under  General 
Hardi,  sailed  for  Ireland,  but  was  attacked  by 
an  English  squadron,  and  hopelessly  defeated. 
Wolfe  Tone,  who  was  on  board  the  principal 
vessel,  the  Hoche,  was  captured  with  the  rest, 
and  entertained  with  the  French  officers  at 
Lord  Cavan's  house  at  Lough  S willy.  Here  a 
treacherous  friend  recognized  him  and  addressed 
him  by  his  name.  Tone  was  too  proud  to 
afi'ect  concealment.    He  was  at  once  sent  in  irons 


THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY.  95 

to  Dublin,  and  tried  by  court-martial ;  he  asked 
in  vain  for  a  soldier's  death  ;  he  was  condemned 
to  be  hanged,  but  he  cut  his  throat  in  prison. 
The  wound  was  not  mortal,  and  he  would  have 
been  hanged,  had  not  Curran  moved  in  the 
King's  Bench  for  a  writ  of  habeas  corpus,  on 
the  ground  that  a  court-martial  had  no  juris- 
diction while  the  Law  Courts  were  still  sitting 
in  Dublin.  The  writ  was  granted,  and  Tone 
died    a   lingering    death   in    prison. 

Wolfe  Tone  was  buried  in  Bodenstown,  not 
far  from  the  little  village  of  Sallins,  some 
eighteen  miles  from  Dublin.  Thomas  Davis 
has  devoted  one  of  his  finest  lyrics  to  the  green 
grave  in  I^odenstown  churchyard,  with  the 
winter  wind  raving  about  it  and  the  storm 
sweeping  down  on  the  plains  of  Kildare.  The 
melancholv  nmsic  of  Davis's  verse  is  well 
suited  to  the  desolate  and  deserted  «:ra>B- 
grown  graveyard  and  the  little  lonely  church, 
ruined  and  roofless,  and  thickly  grown  with 
ivy,  with  the  grave  on  the  side  away  from  the 
road.  When  Davis  wrote  his  poenl  there  was 
no  stone  upon  the  grave  ;  now  it  is  railed  in 
with  iron  rails  wrought  at  the  top  into  the 
shape  of  shamrocks,  and  marked  by^-a  winter- 
worn  headstone,  and  a  stone  slab  with  an  in- 
scription setting  forth  the  name  and  deeds  of 
the  man  who  lies  beneath,  and  ending  "  God 
save  Ireland  ! " 

The  leaders  of  constitutional  agitation  had 
taken  no  part  in  the  rebellion  of  the  United 
Irishmen.  Neither  Grattan  nor  Flood  had  be- 
longed to  the  body,  and  neither  of  them  had 
any  sympathy  with  its  eflbrts.  They  stood 
aside  while  the  struggle  was  going  on,  and  the  • 
most  prominent  place  in  the  public  mind  was 


86       A  SHO  R  T  HISTOR  Y  OF  IRELAND. 

taken  by  a  man  not  less  fjifted  than  either  of 
them,  John  Curran.  Like  Grattan  and  like 
Flood,  Curian  l)egan  his  career  by  trying  to 
play  (m  the  dou1)le  pipes  of  poetry  and  oratory, 
and,  lil^  his  great  compeers,  he  soon  aban- 
doned verse  for  prose.  He  rose  from  a  very 
humble  origin,  by  the  sheer  force  of  his  ability, 
to  a  commanding  position  at  the  bar,  and  an 
honorable  position  in  Parliament,  and  his 
patriotism  was  never  stained  by  the  slightest 
political  subservience.  Before  the  rebellion  of 
1798  he  had  ])een  conspicuous  for  his  courage 
in  advocating  the  causes  of  men  unpopular 
with  the  government  and  the  English  ''  interest," 
and  after  the  rebellion  broke  out  he  rendered 
himself  honorab.ly  eminent  by  the  eloquence 
and  the  daring  which  he  offered  in  turn  to  the 
cause  of  all  the  leading  political  })ri,'^oners. 
In  his  speech  for  Hamilton  Eowan — a  defence 
for-  which  he  was  threatened  like  a  new  Cicero, 
but,  unlike  Cicero,  remained  undi.smayed — 
he  made  that  defence  of  the  princi})le  of 
universal  emanci])ation  which  has  l)een  so  often, 
yet  cannot  be  too  often,  quoted:"!  speak  in 
the  spirit  of  the  British  law,  Avhich  makes 
liberty  commensurate  with,  and  inse})arable 
from,  the  British  soil  which  i)roclaims  even  to 
tlie  stranofer  and  tlie  soiourner,  the  moment  he 
sets  his  foot  on  British  earth,  that  the  ground 
on  which  he  treads  is  liol  \',  and  consecrated  })y 
the  genius  of  universal  emancipation.  No 
matter  in  what  language  his  doom  may  have 
been  pronounced  :  no  matter  what  complexion 
incom})atil)le  with  freedom  an  Afric^m  or  an 
Indian  sun  may  lune  I)urned  upon  him  ;  no 
matter  in  what  disjislrous  battle  his  111)^17  may 
have  been  cloven  down  ;  no  matter   with    what 


THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY.  .         97 

solemnities  he  may  have  been  devoted  upon  the 
altar  of  slavery — the  first  moment  lie  touches 
the  sacred  soil  of  Britain  the  altar  and  the  god 
sink  together  in  the  dust ;  his  soul  walks  abroad 
in  its  own  majesty,  his  body  swells  beyond 
the  measure  of  his  chains,  that  burst  from 
around  him,  and  he  stands  redeemed,  regener- 
ated and  disenthralled  by  the  irresistible  genius  / 
of  universal  emancipation." 

Appeals  to  the  "irresistible  genius  of  uni- 
versal emancipation"  were  not  likely  to  have 
much  effect  just  then.  Martial  and  civil  law 
vied  witjjn,  each  other  in  severity  towards  the 
leaders  of  the  United  Irishmen.  -But  these, 
at  least,  had  striven  for  the  cause  of  emancipation 
with  arms  in  their  hands.  There  was  no  such 
excuse  to  justify  the  measures  now  taken  by  the 
o-overnment  to  insure  that  the  "  genius  of  uni- 
versal  emancipation,"  however  "  commensurate 
with,  and  inseparable  from,"  British  soil, 
should  have  very  little  recognition  pn  Irish 
earth.  . 

Having  destroyed  the  revolution,  the  govern- 
ment now  determined  to  destroy  the  Parlia- 
ment. The  liberty  which  Grattan  had  hoped 
might  be  perpetual  endured  exactly  eighteen 
years.  Grattan  had  traced  the  career  of  Ire- 
laind  from  injuries  to  arms,  and  from  arms  to 
liberty.  He  was  now  to  witness  tlie  reverse  of 
the  process,  to  w^atch  the  progress  from  liberty 
to  arms,  and  from  arms  to  injuries.  The  sword 
crushed  out  the  rebellion,  gold  destroyed  the' 
Parliament.  The  ruin  of  the  Irish  Parliament 
is  one  of  the  most  shameful  stories  of  corrup- 
tion and  treachery  of  whicli  history  holds  wit- 
ness. It  was  necessary  to  obtain  a  government 
majority  in  the  Irish  Parliament,  and  the  ma- 


98        A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  IBELAND. 

jority  was  manufactured  by  the  most  unblush- 
ing bribery.  The  letters  of  Comwallie  confess 
the  shame  of  a  ])rave  soldier  at  the  unworthy 
means  he  had  to  employ  in  obeying  the  deter- 
mination of  the  government  to  steal  from  Ire- 
land her  newly  obtained  liberties.  Place  and 
office  were  lavishly  distributed.  Peerages  won 
the  highest,  and  secret  service  money  the  low- 
est, of  those  who  were  to  be  bought.  The 
English  ministry  had  decided  that  Ireland  was 
to  be  joined  to  England  in  an  indissoluble 
union,  and  as  Ireland  was  hostile  to  the  scheme 
the  union  was  effected  by  force  and  by  fraud. 
The  Bill  of  Union  was  introduced  and  passed 
by  a  well-paid  majority  of  sixty,  in  1800.  The 
eloquence  of  Grattan  was  raised  to  the  last  in 
immortal  accents  against  the  unholy  pact.  But 
the  spieech  of  angels  would  have  been  addressed 
in  vain  to  the  base  and  venal  majority.  It  is 
something  to  remember  that  a  hundred  men 
could  be  found  even  in  that  degraded  assembly 
whom  the  ministry  could  not  corrupt,  who 
straggled  to  the  last  for  the  constitutional  lib- 
erties of  their  country,  and  who  did  not  a])an- 
don  her  in  her  agony. 

It  would  not  be  well  to  leave  this  part  of  the 
story  without  a  reference  to  the  volumes  which 
Mr.  Froude  has  devoted  to  the  "  English  in  Ire- 
land in  the  Eighteenth  Century."  There  is 
perhaps  no  instance  among  the  writings  of  his- 
tory in  which  commanding  talents  have  been 
put  to  a  worse  use.  The  deliberate  and  well- 
calculated  intention  of  rousing  up  all  the  old 
animosities  of  race  and  religion,  the  carefully 
planned  exaggeration  of  everything  that  tells 
against  Ireland,  and  subordination  or  omission 
of  all  to  be  alleged  in  her  favor,  are  evidence 


HMMEt-^O'OOMNJSLL.  99 

of  a  purpose  to  injure  which  happily  defeats  it- 
self. The  grotesque  malignity  with  which  Mr. 
Froude  regards  Ireland  and  everything  Irish  is 
so  absurdly  overdone,  that,  as  Mr.  Lecky  says, 
"his  book  has  no  more. claim  to  impartiality 
than  an  election  squib."  "A  writer  of  English 
history,"'  the  words  are  Mr.  Lecky' s  again, 
"who  took  the 'Newgate  Calendar'  as  the  most 
faithful  expression  of  English  ideas,  and  Eng- 
lish murderers  as  the  typical  representatives  of 
their  nation,  would  not  be  regarded  with  un- 
qualified respect."  Yet  this  is  literally  what 
Mr.  Froude  has  done  in  his  determined  effort  to 
envenom  old  wounds  and  rekindle  the  embers 
of  old  hatreds. 

CHAPTER  Vni. 

r  EMMET.— O'CONNELL. 

Though  the  Union  was  accomplished  with 
the  opening  of  the  century,  the  exchequers  of 
the  two  countries  were  not  consolidated  for  a 
score  of  years  longer,  during  which  Ireland 
suffered  much,  and  England  gained  much,  by 
the  new  contract.  England's  superior  com- 
mand of  capital  rendered  it  impossible  for 
Irish  trade  and  enterprise  to  compete  success- 
fully with  her  while  both  were  chained  together 
under  the  same  system,  and,  as  a  natural  con- 
sequence, Irish  trade  and  enterprise  dwindled, 
diminished,  and  practically  disappeared^  The 
Union,  like  too  many  compacts  that  have  ever 
been  made  with  the  willing  or  unwilling  Irish 
people,  was  immediately  followed  by  a  breach 
of  faith.  One  of  the  most  important  factors  in 
the  securing  of  the  Union  was  the  pledge  en- 


100      A  SHOMT  HISTOBY  OF  IRELAND. 

tered  into  by  Pitt,  and  promulgated  all  over  Ire- 
land by  print,  that  legislation  on  Catholic 
Emancipation  and  the  Tithe  Question  would  be 
introduced  at  once.  It  is  not  to  be  questioned 
that  such  a  promise  must  have  had  great  efl'ect, 
if  not  in  wmning  actual  support  to  the  scheme 
of  Union,  at  least  in  preventing  in  many  cases 
energetic  opposition  to  it.  To  many  the  ques- 
tion of  Catholic  Emancipation  was  so  immedi- 
ately important,  on  many  the  grievous  burden 
of  the  Tithe  Question  pressed  so  heavily,  that 
they  were  almost  ready  to  welcome  any  measure 
which  offered  to  grant  the  one  and  relieve  the 
other.  But  the  pledge  which  Pitt  had  made 
Pitt  could  not  fulfil.  The  bigoted  and  incap- 
able monarch,  who  had  opposed  more  reforms 
and  brought  more  misfortune  upon  his  own 
country  than  any  other  of  all  England's  kings, 
stubbornly  refused  to  give  his  consent  to  any 
measure  for  the  relief  of  the  Roman  Catholics. 
Pitt  immediately  resigned,  just  eleven  dajs 
after  the  Union  had  beccmie  law.  The  obsti- 
nate folly  of  the  third  George  does  not  excuse 
the  minister,  who  had  done  his  best  to  delude 
Ireland  by  arousing  hopes  which  he  was  not 
certain  of  gratifying,  and  making  pledges  that 
he  was  unable  to  fulfil. 

While  the  pledges  to  the  Irish  people  were 
thus  broken,  the  principles  which  had  obtained 
before  the  Union  remained  unaltered.  The 
system  of  corruption  which  is  pei"haps  insepar- 
able from  the  government  of  a  viceroy  and  a 
Castle  clique  was  in  nowise  diminished,  and  all 
the  important  offices  of  the  Irish  executive  were 
filled  solely  by  Englishmen.  But  the  deceived 
people  could  do  nothing.  The  country  was 
under  martial  law ;  and  the  experiences  of  '98 


EMMET— OCONNELL.  .101 

had  left  behind  them  a  memorable  lesson  of 
what  martial  law  meant.  There  was  no  means, 
as  there  would  have  been  no  use,  in  brino-ino; 
forward  their  claims  ^to  consideration  in  any 
constitutional  manner.  But  the  strength  of  the 
national  feeling  of  anger  and  des[)air  may  be 
estimated  by  the  fact  that,  in  spite  of  the  hor- 
rors of  the  recent  revolution,  there  were  dan- 
gerous riots  in  several  parts  of  Ireland,  and 
that  one  actual  rising  took  place,  a  last  act  of 
the  rebellion  of  '98  surviving  the  Union.  A 
young,  brave,  and  gifted  man,  Robert  Emmet, 
the  youngest  Ijrother  of  Thomas  Addis  Emmet, 
])lanned  the  seizure  of  Dublin  Castle.  The 
rising  failed.  Emmet  might  have  escaped,  but 
he  was  in  love  with  Sarali,  Curran's  daughter, 
and  he  Avas  captured  while  awaiting  an  oppor- 
tunity for  an  interview  with  her.  Curran  was 
bitterly  opposed  to  the  love  affair ;  he  refused 
to  defend  Emmet,  and  he  has  sometimes  been 
accused  in  c()!ise(pieucc  of  being  indirectly  the 
cause  of  Emmet's  death.  But  we  may  safely 
assume  that  no  counsel  and  no  defence  could 
have  saved  Emmet  then.  The  trial  was  hurried 
tlirough.  Emmet  was  found  guilty  late  at 
night.  He  was  hani>:ed  the  next  mornin2:,  the 
20th  of  September,  1803,  in  Thomas  Street, 
on  the  spot  where  the  gloomy  church  of  St. 
Catherine  looks  down  Bridge  foot  Street,  where 
his  principal  stores  of  arms  had  been  found. 
Just  before  his  death  he  wrote  a  letter  to 
Richard,  Curran's  son,  full  of  melancholy  ten- 
derness, regret  for  his  lost  love,  and  resignation 
for  his  untimelv  death  : 

"If  there  was  any  one  in  the  world  in  whose 
breast  my  death  might  be  supposed  not  to  stifle 
every  spark  of  resentment,  it  might  be  you  ;  I 


102  SHORT  HISTOR  Y  OF  IRELAND. 

have  deeply  i,njured  you — I  have  injured  the 
haj)pines,s  of  a  sister  that  you  love,  and  who 
was  formed  to  give  hap])iness  to  every  one 
about  her,  instead  of  having  her  own  mind  a 
[)rey  toatHiction.  Oh,  Richard  !  I  have  no  ex- 
cuse to  otfer,  but  that  1  meant  the  reverse  ;  I 
intended  as  much  happiness  for  Sarah  as  the 
most  ardent  love  could  have  given  her.  I  never 
did  tell  you  how  much  I  idolized  her ;  it  was 
not  with  a  wild  or  unfounded  passion,  but  it 
was  an  attachment  increasing  every  hour,  from 
an  admiration  of  the  purity  of  her  mind  and 
respect  for  her  talents.  I  did  dwell  in  secret 
upon  the  prospect  of  our  union.  I  did  hope 
that  success,  while  it  afforded  the  opportunity 
of  our  union,  might  be  the  means  of  coniirming 
an  attachment  which  misfortune  had  called 
forth.  I  did  not  look  to  honors  for  myself — 
praise  I  would  have  asked  from  the  lips  of  no 
man^-but  I  would  have  wished  to  read  in  the 
glow  of  Sarah's  countenance  that  her  husband 
was  respected.  My  love  !  Sarah  !  it  was  not 
thus  that  I  thought  to  have  requited  your  affec- 
tion. I  had  hoped  to  be  a  prop,  round  which 
vour  affections  mi<*:ht  have  clunt*;,  and  which 
would  never  have  been  shaken ;  but  a  rude 
])last  has  sna})ped  it,  and  they  have  fallen  over 
a  grave." 

The  government  acted  against  all  the  persons 
coneerned  in  Emmet's  rising  with  a  rij^or  such 
as  only  panic  could  inspire.  The  fear  of  a 
French  invasion  was  incessantly  before  the  eyes 
of  the'  English  government,  and  for  several 
years  the  IIal)eas  .Corpus  Act  was  suspended, 
and  an  Insurrection  Act  in  full  force.  But  it 
took  no  steps  whatever  to  allay  the  discontent 
which  alone  could  inspire  and  animate  such  in- 


EMMET.—aCONNELL.  108 

surrections.  Pitt  returned  to  office  in  1804  on 
the  distinct  understanding  that  he  would  no 
longer  weary  the  king  with  suggestions  of  re- 
lief for  the  Irish  Catholics,  and  the  minister 
kept  his  word.  The  helplessness  of  the  Irish 
Catholics  and  the  obvious  indifference  of  the 
government  to  their  condition  now  fostered  the 
formation  of  a  powerful  anti-Catholic  associa- 
tion, the  Orange  Society,  a  body  organized  to 
support  the  crown  so  long  as  it  supported 
Protestant  ascendency  in  Ireland,  and  which  at 
one  time,  in  later  years  in  England,  seems  to 
have  gone  near  to  shifting  the  succession  of  the 
crown  altogether. 

For  years  the  government  of  Ireland  drifted 
along  on  its  old  course  of  corruption  and  indif- 
ference. Pitt  died,  and  Fox  took  his  place. 
But  the  ofenius  of  the  ofreat  statesman,  "  on 
whose  burning  tongue  truth,  peace,  and  free- 
dom hung,"  was  quenched  within  the  year,  and 
with  it  the  only  spirit  of  statesmanship  which 
understood  and  sympathized  with  the  struggles 
of  the  Irish  people.  These  struggles  were  car- 
ried on  in  straggling  continuity,  in  the  form  of 
vain  jTctitions  for  redress  from  the  Catholics  of 
the  better  class,  and  of  frequent  disturbances 
of  a  more  or  less  desperate  kind  on  the  part  of 
'the  peasantry.  In  1807  the  tithe  and  land 
difficulties  created  two  bodies,  known  as  Sha- 
navests  and  Caravats,  who  seem  to  have  agi- 
tated for  a  time  very  fiercely  before  they  disap- 
peared under  the  pressure  of  the  law.  But 
once  again,  after  a  decade  of  despair,  a  new" 
leader  of  the  Irish  people,  a  new  champion  of 
the  Catholic  demands  for  freedom  and  the  rights 
of  citizenship,  came  upon  the  scene*; 

Paniel  O'Connell  was  the  first  Irish  leader 


104       A  SHOB  T  HISTOR  Y  OF  IRELAND. 

for  many  years  who  was  himself  a  Roman  Cath- 
olic. In  1807  he  had  made  his  first  political 
appearance  as  a  member  of  the  committee  ap- 
pointed to  present  the  petitions  setting  forth 
the  Catholic  claims  to  Parliament.  In  1810 
his  name  came  more  prominently  before  the 
public,  as  a  speaker  at  a  meeting  called  by  the 
Protestant  Corporation  of  Dublin  to  petition 
for  the  repeal  of  the  Union.  He  at  once  began 
to  take  a  prominent  part  in  the  Emancipation 
Movement,  which  gi*ew  in  strength  and  deter- 
mination year  by  year.  Catholic  meetings 
were  held,  and  were  dispersed  by  the  govern- 
ment time  after  time,  but  still  the  agitation 
went  on.  Its  chief  supporters  in  Parliament 
were  Henry  Grattan,  now  an  old  man,  and  Sir 
Henry  Parnell.  In  1820  Grattan  died,  but 
the  cause  to  which  he  devoted  his  life  was 
rapidly  striding  towards  success.  O'Connell 
and  Richard  Lalor  Shell,  an  advocate  as 
enthusiastic,  an  orator  only  less  power- 
ful, than  O'Connell  himself,  were  bring- 
insr  the  cause  nearer  and  nearer  to  its 
goal.  Three  bills,  embracing  emancipation, 
disfranchisement  of  the  forty-shilling  house- 
holder '  freeholders,  and  the  paj^ment  of  the 
Roman  Catholic  clergy,  were  introduced  and 
advanced  in  the  House  of  Commons  ;  but  the 
House  of  Lords,  urged  by  the  Duke  of  York's 
"So  help  me  God"  speech  against  the  bills, 
was  resolutely  opposed  to  them .  The  triumph 
was  only  postponed.  The  agitators  discovered 
that  the  act  which  prohibited  Roman  Catholics 
from  sitting  in  Parliament  said  nothing  against 
their  being  elected,  and  O'Connell  prepared  to 
carry  the  war  into  Westminster.  In  1828  he 
was  returned  to  the   House  of  Commons  for 


EMMET.—aCONNELL,  105 

Clare  County.  He  refused  to  take  the  oath, 
which  was  expressly  framed  to  exclude  Catholics 
from  the  House.  His  refusal  caused  s^reat 
agitation  in  both  countries,  and  resulted  in  thfe 
passing  of  the  bill  for  Catholic  Emancipation 
in  1829,  after  which  O'Connell  took  his  seat. 
To  O'Connell  what  may  be  considered  as  the 
parliamentary  phase  of  the  Irish  Movement  is 
due.  He  first  brought  the  forces  of  constitu- 
tional agitation  in  England  to  bear  upon  the 
Irish  question,  and  showed  what  great  results 
might  be  obtained  thereby. 

The  act  for  the  relief  of  his  majesty's  Roman 
Catholic  subjects  al)olished  all  oaths  and  declara- 
tions against  transubstantiation,  the  invocation 
of  saints,  and  the  sacrifice  of  the  mass ;  it 
allowed  all  Roman  Catholics,  except  priests, 
to  sit  and  vote  in  the  House  of  Commons,  and 
made  no  such  exception  for  the  House  of  Lords. 
A  special  form  of  oath  was  devised  for  Roman 
Catholic  members  of  Parliament,  the  chief 
provision  of  which  called  upon  them  to  main- 
tain the  Protestant  succession  of  the  House  of 
Hanover,  and  to  make  no  effort  to  weaken  the 
Protestant  religion. 

Though  O'Connell  had  been  the  means  of 
calling  the  act  into  existence,  he  was  not  yef 
able  to  take  his  seat.  The  act  had  been  passed 
since  his  election  for  Clare ;  its  action  was  not 
retrospective.  When  he  presented  himself  to 
be  sworn,  the  old  oath,  which  it  was  impossible 
for  him  to  take,  was  presented  to  him.  He  re^ 
fused  it,  and  was  called  upon  to  withdraw. 
After  some  debate  he  was  heard  at  the  bar  of 
the  House.  There  was  a  division,  and  his 
right  to  take  the  new  oath  was  negatived  by 
190  to  116.     A  new  writ  was  issued  for  Clare. 


106     A  SHOUT  HTSTOBY  OF  IRELAND. 

O'Connell  was,  of  course,  re-elected  without 
opposition,  and  took  his  seat  and  the  new  oath 
on  the  4th  of  Fobnuuy,  1830.  But  between 
O'Connell's  first  and  second' election  a  change 
had  been  made  in  the  composition  of  the 
electors.  By  an  act  of  Henry  VIII.,  which 
had  been  confirmed  in  1795,  freeholders  to  the 
value  of  foiiy  shillings  over  and  above  all 
charges  were  entitled  to  A^ote,  a  system  which 
naturally  created  an  immense  number  of  small 
land-owners,  who  were  ex})ected  to  vote  in 
obedience  to  the  landlords  who  created  them. 
O'Connell's  election  showed  that  the  landlords 
could  not  always  command  the  forty-shilling 
voters.  It  was  clear  that  they  might  be  wan 
over  to  any  po})ular  movement,  and  it  was 
decided  to  abolish  them  ;  which  was  accordingly 
done  by  an  act  passed  on  the  same  day  with  the 
Catholic  Emancipation  Act.  The  new  act 
raised  the  county  franchise  to  ten  i)ounds,  and 
freeholders  of  ten  pounds,  but  under  twenty 
pounds,  were  subjected  to  a  complicated  system 
of  registration,  well  calculated  to  bewilder  the 
unhappy  tenant,  and  render  his  chance  of  voting 
more  difficult.  But  all  these  precautiojis  did 
not  prevent  the  triumphant  return  of  O'Connell 
the  second  time  he  ai)pealed  to  the  electors  of 
Clare,  nor  did  it  ever  prove  of  much  service  in 
repressing  the  tenants  from  voting  for  the 
leaders  of  popular  movements. 

The  disenfranchisement  produced  intense 
discontent  throughout  the  country,  and  disorder 
followed  close  on  discontent.  O'Connell  now 
began  to  remind  Ireland  of  his  promise  tliat 
Catholic  Emancipation  was  a  means  towards  an 
end,  and  that  end  the  Repeal  of  the  LTnion. 
He  started  a  society  called  the  "  Friend  of  Ire- 


EMMET.—aCONNELL.  107 

land,"  which  the  government  at  once  put  down. 
He  started  another,  "The  Anti-Union  Associa- 
tion." It  was  put  down  too,  and  O'Connell 
was  arrested  for  sedition,  tried,  and  found 
guilty.  Judgment  was  deferred  and  never 
pronounced,  and  O'Connell  was  released  to 
carry  on  his  agitation  more  vigorously  than 
ever.  With  Ireland  torn  by  disorders  against 
which  even  the  Insurrection  Acts  in  force 
found  it  hard  to  cope,  with  the  country  aflame 
with  anger  at  the  extinction  of  the  forty-shilling 
vote,  the  government  judged  it  wise  and  prudent 
to  bring  in  a  bill  for  Ireland  in  January,  1832, 
effecting  still  further  disfranchisement.  The 
new  bill  abolished  the  foily-shilling  vote  in 
boroughs  as  well  as  in  counties,  and  the  lowest 
rate  for  boroughs  and  counties  was  ten  pounds. 

But  for  the  next  few  years  all  recollection 
of  emancipation  on  the  one  hand,  and  dis- 
enfranchisement  on  the  other,  was  to  be 
swallowed  up  in  a  struggle  which  has  passed 
into  history  as  the  Irish  Tithe  War.  The 
English  Church  was  established  in  Ireland 
against  the  will  of  the  enormous  majority  of 
the  Irish  people,  and  they  Avere  compelled  to 
pay  tithes  to  maintain  the  obnoxious,  establish- 
ment. Sydney  Smith  declared  that  there  was 
no  abuse  like  this  in  Timbuctoo,  and  he 
estimated  that  probably  a  million  of  lives  had 
been  sacrificed  in  Ireland  to  the  collection  of 
tithes.  They  had  to  be  wrung  from  the 
reluctant  people  at  the  point  of  the  bayonet,  , 
and  often  enough  by  musket  volleys.  There 
were,  naturally,  incessant  riots.  Thie  clergy- 
men of  the  Established  Church  had  to  call  in 
the  services  of  an  army,  and  appeal  to  the 
strategies  and  menaces  of  miniature  war  to  ob- 


108      A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 

tain  their  tithes  from  the  harassed  followers  of 
another  faith.  Such  a  state  of  thin<ys  could 
not  last  long.  In  the  end  a  general  strike 
against  the  payment  of  tithes  was  organized, 
and  then  not  all  the  king's  horses  nor  aU  the 
king's  men  could  have  enforced  their  payment. 
In  1833  the  arrears  of  tithes  exceeded  a  million 
and  a  quarter  of  money.  There  was  in  Ireland 
an  army  almost  as  great  as  that  which  held 
India.  In  1833  it  had  cost  more  than  a  million 
to  maintain  this  army,  with  £300,000  more  for 
the  police  force,  and  the  government  had  spent 
£26,000  to  collect  £12,000  of  tithes.  For 
many  years  successive  English  ministers  and 
statesmen  made  efforts  to  deal  with  the  Tithe 
Question  ;  but  it  was  not  until  1838,  a  year 
after  Queen  Victoria  came  to  the  throne,  that  a 
bill  was  passed  by  Lord  John  Russell,  which 
converted  tithes  into  a  rent  charge,  recoverable 
from  the  landlord  instead  of  from  the  tenant. 
The  tenant  had  practically  still  to  pay  the  tithes 
in  increased  rent  to  his  landlord,  but  it  was  no 
longer  levied  from  him  directly  as  tithes,  and 
by  the  ministers  of  the  Established  Church  ; 
that  was  the  only  difference.  It  only  exasper- 
ated the  existino;  discontent.  The  ajjitation 
turned  against  rent,  now  that  the  rent  meant 
tithes  as  well.  Secret  societies  increased.  A 
landlord,  Lord  Norbury,  was  assassinated,  and 
the  assassins  were  never  discovered,  though 
the  country  was  under  severe  Coercion  Acts. 

In  the  year  1845  there  was  fierce  discussion 
in  England  over  the  Maynooth  grant.  Some 
time  before  the  Union  a  ijovernment  ojrant  had 
been  made  to  the  Roman  Catholic  college  at 
IVIaynooth,  where  yoiuig  men  who  wislied  to 
become    priests  were    educated.     But  the  old 


EMMET.— aCONNELL.  109 

grant  was  insufficient,  and  Sir  Robert  Peel  in- 
creased it  in  tlie  teeth  of  the  most  violent  op- 
position, not  merely  from  his  political  oppon- 
ents, but  from  many  who  were  on  other  matters 
his  political  partisans.  Mr.  Gladstone  resigned 
his  place  in  the  misistry  rather  than  counten- 
ance the  increased  Maynooth  grant.  For  years 
and  years  after,  annual  motions  were  made  ill 
the  House  of  Commons  for  the  withdrawal  of 
the  2:rant,  and  weari]^'  debated,  until  the  abo- 
lition  of  the  State  Church  in  Ireland  abolished 
the  grant,  too,  and  ended  the  matter.  Peel 
also  established  the  Queen's  Colleges  of  Cork, 
Belfast,  and  Gal  way,  for  purely  secular  teach- 
ing, which  came  to  be  known  in  consequence 
as  the  Godless  Colleo:es.  These  colleores 
pleased  neither  Catholics  nor  Protestants.  The 
Catholics  argued  that  there  were  universities 
which  ffave  Protestants  religious  as  well  as  se- 
cular  education,  and  that  the  Catholics  should 
be  allowed  something  of  the  same  kind.  Still, 
the  new  scheme,  at  least,  allowed  Catholics  an 
opportunity  of  obtaining  a  university  education 
and  winning  university  degrees.  Up  to  that 
time  no  Irishman  of  the  religion  of  his  race 
could  win  any  of  the  honors  that  the  universi- 
ties of  Ireland  offered  which  were  worth  win- 
ning. He  might,  indeed,  enter  their  gates  and 
sit  at  the  feet  of  their  teachers,  but  so  long  as 
he  was  a  Catholic  he  could  practically  reap  no 
rewards  for  his  scholarship. 

O'Connell's  success  in  winning  Catholic 
Emancipation  inspired  him  with  the  desire  to 
bring  about  the  repeal  of  the  Union,  and  it  did 
not  seem  to  him  and  his  followers  that  the  diffi- 
culties in  the  way  were  any  greater  than  those 
which   had    showed  so  terrible  when.  Catholic 


ItO      A  SHOUT  HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 

Emancipation  was  first  demanded,  and  which 
had  been  triumphantly  overcome. 

There  was  a  ffreat  deal  aorainst  the  agitation. 
To  begin  with,  the  country  was  very  poor. 
"Every  class  of  the  community,"  says  Sir 
Charles  Gavan  Dufty,  '^^  were  poorer  than  the 
con-esponding  class  in  any  country  in  Europe." 
The  merchants,  who  had  played  a  prominent 
part  in  political  life  since  the  Unionj  were  now 
wearied  and  despairing  of  all  agitation,  and 
held  aloof ;  the  Protestant  gentry  were,  for  the 
most .  part,  devoted  to  the  Union  ;  many  of 
the  Catholic  gentry  disliked  O'Connell  himself 
and  his  rough,  wild  ways  ;  many  of  O'Connell's 
old  associates  in  the  Catholic  Emancipation 
movement  had  withdrawn  from  him  to  join  the 
Whiorg.  In  Eno'land  the  most  active  dislike  of 
O'Connell  prevailed.  The  Pericles  or  the  So- 
crates of  Aristophanes,  the  royalists  drawn  by 
Camille  Desmoulins,  were  not  grotc-^quer  cari- 
catures than  the  •  representation  of  O'Connell 
by  English  opinion  and  the  Englibh  press. 

But,  on  the  other  hand,  there  was  much  for 
O'Connell.  It  might  be  said  of  him  as  of 
Wordsworth's  Toussaint  I'Ouverture,  that  "his 
friends  were  exultations,  agonies,  and  love, 
and  man's  unconquerable  mind."  The  people 
were  with  him,  the  people  to  whose 
sufferings  he  appealed,  the  people  for  whom 
he  had  secured  the  Catholic  Emancipation, 
and  who  regarded  him  as  almost  invinci- 
ble.  He  was  a  great  orator,  endowed  with  a 
wonderful  voice,  which  he  could  send  in  all  its 
strength  and  sweetness  to  the  furthest  limits  of 
the  vastest  crowd  that  ever  came  together  to 
hear  him  sp^k.  Lord  Lytton  ddcifcred  that 
he  fiist  learned 


SMMET.—aCONNELL.  Ill 

"  what  epells  of  inAnitc  choice 
To  rouse  or  lull  has  the  eweet  human  Voice," 

when  he  heard  O'Connell  speak,  and  that  in 
watching  him  governing  with  his.  genius  and 
his  eloquence  one  of  his  great  meetings,  he 
learned 

'^ 

"to  seize  the  sudden  clue 
To  the  grand  troubloug  life  antique,  to  view 
Under  the  rock  stand  of  Demosthenes 
Unstable  Athens  heave  her  8tor"iy  seas."  ■ 

It  was  not  unnatural  that  O'Connell  shcmld 
have  been  carried  away  by  his  triumph  and  the 
homage  his  country  gave  him  everywhere  into 
the  belief  that  the  Repeal  of  the  Union  was  to 
be  as  easily  accomplished  by  the  strong  man 
and  the  determined  nation  as  the  emancipation 
of  the  Catholics. 

During  the  years  of  disturbance  and  repres- 
sion, O'Connell  had  let  the  demand  for  Repeal 
lie  comparatively  quiet,  but  it  was  gradually 
gaining  strength  and  popularity  throughout  the 
country.  It  was  supported  at  first  by  the  JVation 
newspaper.  In  1843  the  Repeal  Association 
was  founded ;  O'Connell  contrived  to  enlist  in 
its  ranks  Father  Mathew,  and  the  krge  num- 
ber of  followers  Father  Mathew  w^as  daily  win- 
ning over  to  the  cause  of    total  abstinence. 

"The  year  1843,"  said  O'Connell,  "is  and 
shall  be  the  great  Repeal  year."  The  predic- 
tion was  vain ;  forty  years  have  gone  by,  and 
still  the  Union  holds.  O'Connell  had  Ireland 
at  his  back ;  he  convened  gigantic,  meetings 
where  every  word  of  his  wonderful  voice  was 
treasured  as  the  utterance  of  a  prophet ;  but 
when  the  agitation  had  reached  a  heig-ht  which 
seemed  dangerous  to  the  government,  and  made 
them  decide  to  put  it   down,  his  power   was 


112      A  SHORT  HISTOM  V  OF  IRELAND. 

over.  He  would  sanction  no  sort  of  physical 
force,  no  opposition  other  than  constitutional 
opposition  to  the  government.  The  govern- 
ment i)roclainied  his  meetings  and  put  him  into 
prison  :  he  was  soon  set  free,  but  his  reign  was 
over.  Fierce  spirits  had  risen  in  his  place, 
men  who  scornfully  repudiated  the  abnegation 
of  physical  force.  Broken  in  health,  O'Con- 
nell  turned  to  Kome,  and  died  on  the  way,  at 
Genoa,  on  May  15,  1847.  Many  recent  polit- 
ical writers  have  been  at  the  pains  to  glorify 
O'Connell  at  the  expense  of  the  later  leaders. 
It  is  instructive  to  rememl^er  that  in  O'Connell's 
lifetime,  and  for  long  after,  he  was  the  object 
of  political  hatred  and  abuse  no  less  unsparing 
than  any  that  has  assailed  his  successors  in  Irish 
popularity. 

The  condition  of  Ireland  at  the  time  of 
O'Connell's  death  was  truly  desperate.  From 
1845  to  1847  a  terrible  famine  had  been  liter- 
ally laying  the  country  waste.  The  chief,  in- 
deed, practically,  the  only  food  of  the  Irish 
peasantry  tlien,  as  now,  was  the  potato,  and  a 
failure  of  the  potato  crop  meant  starvation. 
"But  what,"  says  Carlyle  in  his  "French  Eev- 
olution,"  "if  history  somewhere  on  this  planet 
were  to  hear  of  a  nation,  the  third  soul  of 
w^hom  had  not  for  thirty  weeks  each  year  as 
many  third-rate  potatoes  as  would  sustain  him  ? 
History  in  tliat  case  feels  bound  to  consider 
that  starvation  is  starvation ;  that  starvation 
from  age  to  age  pre-su[)poses  much  :  history 
ventures  to  assert  that  the  French  Sansculotte 
of  '93,  who,  roused  from  long  death-sleep, 
could  rush  at  once  to  the  frontiers,  and  die 
lighting  for  an  immortal  hope  and  faith  and  de- 
liverance for  him  and  his,  was  but  the  second 


YOUNG  lltELAND.-FENlANISM.        118 

miserablest  of  men  !  The  Irish  Sans-potato, 
had  he  not  senses  then,  nay,  a  soul?  In  his 
frozen  darkness  it  was  bitter  for  him  to  die 
famishing,  bitter  to  see  his  children  fartiish." 

In  1845,  1846,  and  in  1847  the  potato  crop 
had  failed,  and  for  the  time  the  country  seemed 
almost  given  over  to  hunger  and  to  death. 
Thousands  died  miserably  from  starvation ; 
thousands  fled  across  the  seas,  seeking .  refuge 
in  America,  to  hand  down  to  their  children  and 
their  children's  children,  born  in  the  American 
republic,  a  bitter  recollection  of  the  misery 
they  had  endured,  and  the  wrongs  that  had 
been  inflicted  upon  them.  When  the  famine 
was  at  an  end  it  was  found  that  Ireland  had 
lost  two  millions  of  population.  Before  the 
famine  she  had  eight  millions,  now  she  had  six. 
All  through  the  famine  the  government  had 
done  nothing ;  private  charity  in  England,  in 
America,  even  in  Turkey,  had  done  something, 
and  done  it  nobly,  to  stay  the  desolation  and 
the  dissolution  that  the  famine  was  causing. 
But  the  government,  if  it  could  not  appease 
the  famine,  showed  itself  active  in  devising 
Coercion  Bills  to  put  down  any  spirit  of  vio- 
lence which  misery  and  starvation  might  haply 
have  engendered  in  the  Irish  people. 

Such  was  the  condition  of  the  country  when 
O'Connell  and  the  Repeal  Movement  died  to- 
gether, and  when  the  Young  Ireland  Movement, 
with  its  dream  of  armed  rebellion,  came  into 
existence. 

CHAPTER  IX. 

YOUNG  IRELAND. ^FENIANISM. 

The  Nation  newspaper  was  first  published 
on  the  13tli  of  October,  1842  ;  it  was  founded 


114       4  SMOUT  fflSTORY  OF  IRELAND. 

by  Gavan  Duffy,  John  Blake  Dillon,  and 
Thomas  Davis.  Gavan  Duffy  was  the  editor, 
but  he  says  himself,  in  his  history  of  the 
movement,  that  Davis  was  their  true  leader. 
They  were  all  young  men  ;  Davis  was  twenty- 
eight,  Dillon  twenty-seven,  and  Duffy  twenty- 
six.  Davis,  says  Sir  Charles  Gavan  Duffy, 
"was  a  man  of  middle  statue,  strongly  but  not 
coarsely  built ;  .  .  .  a  broad  brow  and  strong 
jaw  stamped  his  face  with  a  character  of 
power;  but  except  when  it  was  lighted 
by  thought  or  feeling,  it  was  plain  and 
even  rugged."  In  his  boyhood,  he  was 
"shy,  retiring,  unready,  and  self-absorbed," 
was  even  described  as  "  a  dull  child"  by  un- 
appreciative  kinsfolk.  At  Trinity  College  he 
was  a  wide  and  steady  reader,  who  was  chiefly 
noted  by  his  fellow-students  for  his  indifference 
to  rhetorical  display.  He  was  auditor  of  the 
Dublin  Historical  Society,  had  made  some  name 
for  himself  by  his  contributions  to  a  magazine 
called  the  Citizen ,  and  was  a  member  of  the 
Repeal  Association.  When  Duffy  made  John 
Dillon's  acquaintance,  Dillon  was  "tall,  and 
strikingly  handsome,  with  eyes  like  a  thought- 
ful woman's  and  the  clear  olive  complexion  and 
stately  bearing  of  a  Spanish  nobleman."  He 
had  been  designed  for  the  priesthood,  but  had 
decided  to  adopt  the  bar.  Like  Davis,  h^e 
loved  intellectual  pursuits,  and  was  a  man  of 
wide  and  varied  learning.  "Under  a  stately 
and  somewhat  reserved  demeanor  lay  latent  the 
simplicity  and  joyfulness  of  a  boy  ;  no  one  was 
readier  to  laugh  with  frank  cordiality,  or  to 
give  and  take  the.  pleasant  banter  which  lends  a 
relish  to  the  friendship  of  young  men."  Long 
years    after,  Thackeray  said  of  him  to  Gavi^i 


YOUNG  IRELAND.— FENIANISM.        11") 

« 

Duffy,  that  the  modesty  and  wholesome  sweet- 
ness of  John  Dillon  gave  him  a  foremost  })lace 
among  the  half  dozen  men  in  the  United  States 
whom  he  loved  to  remember. 

The  success  of  the  N^atimi  was  extraordinary. 
Its  political  teachings,  its  inspiring  and  vigor- 
ous songs  and  ballads,  the  new  lessons  of 
courage  and  hope  which  it  taught,  the  wide 
knowledge  of  history  possessed  by  its  writere — 
all  combined  to  make  it  welcome  to  thousands. 
The  tradesmen  in  town  and  the  country  peasants 
read  it,  and  were  animated  by  the  story  of 
their  old  historic  island  into  the  belief  that  she 
had  a  future,  and  that  the  future  was  close  at 
hand,  and  that  they  were  to  help  to  make  it. 
It  was  denounced  by  the  Tory  press  as  the 
organ  of  a  hidden  "French  party."  From 
France  itself  came  words  of  praise  worth  hav- 
ing, from  two  Irish  officers  in  the  French  ser- 
vice. One  was  Arthur  O'Connor,  the  Arthur 
O'Connor  of  '98,  the  other  was  Miles  Byrne, 
who  had  fought  at  Wexford.  O'Connell  be- 
came alarmed  at  the  growing  popularity  of  the 
JSTation.  At  first  it  had  strongly  supported 
him ;  he  had  even  written  a  Repeal  Catechism 
in  its  pages  ;  but  its  young  men  had  the  couTage 
to  think  for  themselves,  and  to  criticise  even 
the  deeds  and  words  of  the  Liberator.  More 
and  more  young  men  clustered  around  the 
writers  of  the  Kation;  brilliant  young  essayists, 
politicians,  poets.  Gifted  women  wrote  for 
the  Nation,  too — Lady  Wilde,  "Speranza," 
chief  among  them.  The  songs  published  in  n 
volume  called  "The  Spirit  of  the  Nation"  be- 
came immediately  very  po})ular.  As  the 
agitation  grew.  Peel's  governrtient  becanie 
more  threatening.     O'Connell,  in  most  of   his 


;16        A  SHOET  HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 

defiant  declarations,  evidently  thought  that 
Peel  did  not  dare  to  put  down  the  organization 
for  Repeal,  or  he  would  never  have  challenged 
him  as  he  did ;  for  O'Connell  never  really 
meant  to  ret^ort  to  force  at  any  time.  But  the 
few  young  men  who  wrote  for  the  JVation,  and 
the  many  young  men  who  read  the  JVation, 
were  really  prepared  to  fight,  if  need  be,  for 
their  liberties.  Nor  did  they  want  foreign 
sympathy  to  encourage  them.  In  the  United 
States  vast  meetings,  organized  and  directed 
by  men  like  Seward  and  Horace  Greeley,  threat- 
ened England  with  ""the  assured  loss  of  Canada 
by  American  arms "  if  she  suppressed  the  Re- 
peal agitation  by  force ;  and  later  Horace 
Greeley  was  one  of  a  Directory  in  New  York 
for  sending  officers  and  arms  to  Ireland.  In 
France,  the  Republican  Party  were  >  loud  in 
their  expressions  of  sympathy  for  the  Irish, 
and  Ledru  RoUin  had  declared  that  France  was 
ready  to  lend  her  strength  to  the  sui)port  of  an 
oppressed  nation.  No  wonder  the  leaders  of 
the  National  Party  were  encouraged  in  the  be- 
lief that  their  cause  was  pleasing  to  the  Fates. 

A  new  man  now  beiran  to  come  forward  as  a 
prominent  figure  in  Irish  i)olitics,  Mr.  William 
Smith  O'Brien,  Member  of  Parliament  for 
Limerick  County.  He  was  a  country  gentle- 
man of  stately  descent,  a  direct  descendant  of 
Brian  Boroihme,  a  brother  of  Lord  Inchiquin. 
He  was  a  high-minded  and  honorable  gentle- 
man, with  his  country's  cause  deeply  at  heart. 
Davis  described  him  as  the  "  most  extravagant 
admirer  of  the  Hat  ion  I  have  ever  met." 
Another  prominent  man  was  John  Mitchel,  the 
son  of  an  Ulster  Unitarian  minister.  When 
O'Connell's  vast  agitation  fell  to  pieces  after  the 


YO  UNO  lEELAND.— FENIAN  ISM.        117 

Hiippresbioja  of  the  meeting  of  Clontarf,  and 
tlie  subsequent  nni)risonnient  of  O'Connell 
showed  that  the  Liberator  did  not  mean  ever 
to  appeal  to  the  physical  force  he  had  talked 
a))out;  these  two  men  became  the  leaders  of 
different  sections  of  the  Young  Ireland  Party, 
as  the  men  of  the  JVation  were  now  called. 
Thomas  Davis,  the  sweet  chief  singer  of  the 
movement,  died  suddenly  before  the  move- 
ment which  he  had  done  so  much  for  had  taken 
direct  revolutionary  shape.  Mitchel  came  on 
the  JV^ation  in  his  place,  and  advocated  revolu- 
tion ar.d  republicanism.  He  followed  the 
traditions  of  P^mmet  and  the  men  of  '98  ;  he 
was  in  favor  of  independence.  His  doctrines 
r;ttracted  the  more  ardent  of  the  Young  Ircland- 
crs,  and  Avhat  was  known  as  a  War  Party  was 
i'onned.  There  were  now  three  sections  of 
Irish  agitation.  There  were  the  Kepealers,  who 
were  o})posed  to  all  physical  force  ;  there  Avere 
the  moderate  Younglrelanders,  only  recognizing 
physical  force  when  all  else  had  failed  in  the 
last  instance ;  and  there  Avere  now  this  new 
party,  who  saw  in  rcA olution  the  only  remedy 
for  Ireland.  Smith  O'Brien  was  bitterly  op- 
posed to  IMitchel's  doctrines.  Mitchel  with- 
drew from  the  JVation  and  started  a  pajier  of 
his  OAvn,  ihQ  United  IriHltman,  in  which  he  ad- 
vocated them  more  fiercely  than  ever.  But 
though  most  of  the  Young  Irelanders  were  not 
so  extreme  as  Mitchel,  the  great  majority  of 
them  talked,  wrote,  and  thought  revolution. 
In  passionate  poems  and  eloquent  speeches 
they  expressed  their  hah^d  of  tyranny  and 
their  stern  resolve  to  free  their  country  by 
brave  deeds  rather  than  by  arguments.  They 
had  now  a  brilliant  orator  among  them,  Thomas 


118        A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 

Francis  Meagher,  "  a  young  man,"  says  Mr. 
Lecky,  "whose  eloquence  was  beyond  com- 
parison superior  to  that  of  any  other  rising 
speaker  in  the  country,  and  who,  had  he  been 
l)laced  in  circumstances  favorable  to  the  develop- 
ment of  his  talent,  might  perhaps,  at  length, 
have  taken  liis  place  among  the  great  orators 
of  Ireland."  Meaorher  had  earlv  endeared  him- 
self  to  the  impetuous  and  gifted  young  men 
with  whom  he  was  allied,  by  a  brilliant  speech 
against  O'Connell's  doctrine  of  passive  resist- 
ance. "  1  am  not  one  of  those  tame  moralists," 
the  young  man  exclaimed,  "who  say  that 
liberty  is  not  worth  one  drop  of  blood.  .  .  . 
Against  this  niiseral)le  maxim  the  noble  virtue 
that  has  saved  and  santified  humanity  appears 
in  judgment.  From  the  blue  waters  of  the 
Bay  of  Salamis  ;  from  the  valley  over  which  the 
sun  stood  still  and  lit  the  Israelites  to  victory ; 
from  the  cathedral  in  which  the  sword  of  Pol- 
and has  been  sheathed  in  the  shroud  of 
Kosciusko  ;  from  the  Convent  of  St.  Isidore, 
where  the  tiery  hand  that  rent  the  ensign  of 
St.  George  upon  the  plains  of  Ulster  has 
mouldered  mto  dust ;  from  the  sands  of  the 
desert,  where  the  wild  genius  of  the  Algerine 
so  long  has  scared  the  eagle  of  the  Pyrenees ; 
from  the  ducal  palace  m  this  kingdom,  where 
the  memorv  of  the  gallant  and  seditious 
Geraldine  enhances  more  than  royal  favor  the 
splendor  of  his  race  ;  from  the  solitary  grave 
within  this  mute  city,  which  a  dying  bequest 
has  left  without  an  epitaph — oh  !  from  every 
spot  where  heroism  has  had  a  sacrifice  or  a 
triumph,  a  voice  breaks  in  upon  the  cringing 
crowd  that  cherishes  this  maxim,  crying, 
'  Away  with    it — away   with   it ! ' "    The  yeai* 


XOUNCh  iRELANL.-FENlAmSM.       US 

1848,  the  year  of  unfulfilled  revolutions,  when 
crowas  were  falling  and  kings  flying  about  in 
all  directions,  might  well  have  seemed  a  year 
of  happy  omen  for  a  new  Irish  rebellion.  But 
the  Young  Irelanders  were  not  ready  for  re- 
bellion when  their  plans  were  made  known  to 
government,  and  the  government  struck  at 
them  before  they  could  do  anything.  Mitchel 
was  arrested,  tried,  and  transported  to  Bennuda. 
That  was  the  turning-point  of  the  revolution. 
The  Mitchelites  wished  to  rise  in  rescue.  They 
urged,  and  rightly  urged,  that  if  revolution 
was  meant  at  all,  then  was  the  time.  But  the 
less  extreme  men  held  back.  An  autumnal 
rising  had  been  decided  upon,  and  they  were 
unwilling  to  anticipate  the  struggle.  They 
carried  their  point.  Mitchel  was  sentenced  to 
fourteen  years'  transportation.  When  the 
verdict  was  delivered  he  declared  that,  like  the 
Roman  Scsevola,  he  could  promise  hundreds 
who  would  follow  his  example,  and  as  he  spoke 
he  pointed  to  John  Martin,  Meagher,  and 
others  of  the  associates  who  were  thronging 
the  galleries  of  the  court.  A  wild  cry  came 
up  from  all  his  friends,  ''  Pi"omise  for  me, 
Mitcljel— promise  for  me  !"  With  that  cry 
ringing  in  his  ears  he  was  hurried  from  the 
court,  heavily  ironed  and  encircled  by  a  little 
army  of  dragoons,  to  the  war-sloop  Shear- 
water ^  that  had  been  waiting  for  the  verdict  and 
th©  man.  As  the  war-sloop  steamed  out  of 
Dublin  harbor  the  hopes  of  the  Young  Ireland- 
era  went  with  her,  vain  and  evanescent,  from 
that  hour  forth,  as  the  smoke  that  floated  in  the 
steamer's  wake.  Mitchel  had  himself  dis- 
countenanced, to  his  undying  honor,  any 
attempt  at  rescue.     There  is  a  pathetic  little 


120      A  SHOUT  HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 

story  which  records  his  looking  out  of  the 
prison-van  that  drove  him  from  the  court,  and 
seeing  a  great  crowd  and  asking  where  they 
were  going,  and  being  told  that  they  were  go- 
ing to  a  flower-show.  There  were  plenty  of 
men  in  the  movement  who  would  have  gladly 
risked  everytliing  to  try  and  rescue  Mitchel. 
But  nothing  could  have  been  done  without 
unanimity,  and  the  too  great  caution  of  the 
leaders  prevented  the  effort  at  the  only  moment 
when  it  could  have  had  the  faintest  hope  of  suc- 
cess. From  that  hour  the  movement  was  doomed. 
Men  who  had  gone  into  the  revolution  heart 
and  soul  might  then  have  said  of  Smith 
O'Brien,  as  Menas  in  "Antony  and  Cleopatra" 
says  to  Pompey,  "For  this  I'll  never  follow 
thy  pall'd  fortunes  more.  Who  seeks  and  will 
not  take  when  once  'tis  offered,  shall  never 
find  it  more."  The  supreme  moment  of 
danger  thus  passed  over,  the  government  lost 
no  time  in  crushing  out  all  that  was  left  of  the 
insurrection.  Smith  O'Brien,  Meagher,  and 
Dillon  went  down  into  the  country,  and  tried 
to  raise  an  armed  rebellion.  There  was  a 
small  scuffle  with  the  police  in  a  cabbage- 
garden  at  Ballingarry,  in  Tipperary  ;  the  rebels 
were  dispersed,  and  the  rebellion  was  over. 
Srnith  O'Brien,  Meagher,  and  others  were 
arrested  and  condemned  to  death.  Meagher's 
speech  from  the  dock  was  worthy  of  his 
rhetorical  orenius.  "I  am  not  here  to  crave 
with  faltering  lip  the  life  I  have  consecrated  to 
theindependenceof  my  country.  .  .  .  I  offer  to 
my  country,  as  some  proof  of  the  sincerity 
with  which  I  have  thought  and  spoken  and 
struggled  for  her,  the  life  of  a  young  heart.  .  .  . 
The  history  of  Ireland  explains  my  crime  and 


YOUNG  IBELAND.—FENIANISM.  121 

justifies  it.  .  .  .  Even  here,  where  the  shadows 
of  death  surround  me,  and  from  which  I  see 
my  early  grave  opening  for  me  in  no  con- 
secrated soil,  the  hope  which  beckoned  me 
forth  on  that  perilous  sea  whereon  I  have  been 
wrecked,  animates,  consoles,  enraptures  me. 
No,  I  don't  despair  of  my  poor  old  country, 
her  peace,  her  liberty,  her  glory  !  " 

The  death-sentence  was  commuted  to 
transportation  for  life,  and  some  years  after- 
Mitchel  and  Meagher  succeeded  in  escaping  from 
Australia,  and  later  on  Smith  O'Brien  was 
pardoned,  and  died  in  Wales  in  1854.  Mitchel 
was  elected  to  the  House  of  Commons  years 
after,  but  was  not  allowed  to  sit,  and  died 
while  the  question  was  still  pending.  Meagher 
fought  bravely  for  the  cause  of  the  North  in 
the  American  Civil  War,  and  died  ingloriously, 
drowned  in  the  muddy  waters  of  the  Missouri. 
Gavan  Dufty  was  tried  three  times,  but  could 
not  be  convicted.  He  afterwards  sat  for  some 
time  in  Parliament,  and  then  went  into  vol- 
untary exile,  to  find  fame  and  fortune  in 
Victoria.  For  sixteen  years  the  country  was 
politically  quiet.  A  vain  attempt  was  made 
in  1849,  after  all  the  Young  Ireland  leaders 
had  fled  or  been  sent  into  exile,  to  revive  the 
agitation  and  recreate  the  insurrection.  A  few 
abortive  local  risings  there  were,  and  nothing 
more.  Starvation  and  misery  forced  the 
people  into  steady  and  incessant  emigration. 
Eviction  was  in  full  swing,  and  between  eviction 
and  emigration  it  is  estimated  that  almost  a 
million  of  people  left  Ireland  between  1847 
and  1857.  "In  a  few  years  more,"  said  the 
Times  exultingly,  "a  Celtic  Irishman  will  be 
as  rare  in   Connemara  as  is  the  Red  Indian  on 


122        A  SHORT  HISTOEY  or  IMBLANB. 

the  shores  of  Manhattan."  That  the  Times 
was  not  a  true  prophet  was  no  fault  of  the 
majority  of  the  Irish  landlords.  Evictions  took 
place  by  the  hundred,  by  tlie  thousand,  by  the 
ten  thousand.  Winter  or  summer,  day  or 
night,  fair  or  foul  weatlier,  the  tenants  were 
ejected.  Sick  or  well,  bedridden  or  dying, 
the  tenants,  men,  women,  or  children,  w^ere 
turned  out  for  the  rents  th(»y  had  not  paid, 
for  the  rents  whicli  in  those  evil  days  of  famine 
and  failure  they  could  not  pay.  They  might 
go  to  America  if  they  could ;  they  might  die 
on  the  roadstead  if  so  it  pleased  them.  They 
were  out  of  the  hut,  and  the  hut  was  unroofed 
that  they  might  not  seek  its  shelter  again, 
and  that  was  all  the  landlord  cai"ed  about.  The 
expiring,  evicted  tenant  might,  said  Mitchel, 
raise  his  dying  eyes  to  heaven  and  bless  his 
God  that  he  perished  under  the  finest  constitu- 
tion in  the  world.  It  is  hardly  a  matter  of 
surprise,  however  much  of  regret  and  reproba- 
tion, that  the  lives  of  the  evicting  landlords 
should  often  be  in  peril,  and  often  be  taken. 
The  English  farmer,  the  English  cottier,  have 
happily  no  idea  of  the  horror  of  evictions  in 
Ireland  as  they  })revftiled  in  the  years  that 
followed  the  famine  of  1847,  as  they  had  always 
prevailed,  as  they  j)revail  still. 

Many  of  the  landlords  themselves  were  in 
no  enviable  condition.  Mortgages  and  settle- 
ments  of  all  kinds,  the  results  of  their  own  or 
their  ancestors'  profuseness,  hung  on  their 
estates,  and  made  many  a  stately  showing  rent- 
roll  the  merest  simulacrum  of  territorial  wealth. 
Even  rack-rents  could  not  enable  many  of  the 
landlords  to  kee[)  their  heads  above  water. 
At   length   the   English   government  made  ao 


YO  Vm  IRELAND.  ^PENIANISM.       123 

effort  to  relieve  their  condition  by  passing  the 
Encumbered  Estates  Act,  by  means  of  which  a 
landlord  or  his  creditors  might  petition  to  have 
an  estate  sold  in  the  court  established  for  that 
purpose  under  the  act.  In  1858,  by  supple- 
mentary Irish  Landed  Estates  Act,  the  po^vers 
of  the  court  were  increased  to  allow  the  sale 
of  properties  that  were  not  encumbered. 

The  tenant  wanted  legislation  as  well  as  the 
landlord,  and  in  August,  1850,  those  ,  who 
sympathized  with  the  tenant's  cause  began  to 
agitate  for  legislation.  A  conference  was 
called  by  Dr.  (afterwards  Sir)  John  Gray,  the 
Protestant  owner  of  the  Freeman^ s  Journal,  by 
the  Presbyterian  barrister  Mr.  Greer,  who 
later  represented  Derry  in  Parliament,  and  by 
Frederick  Lucas,  the  Catholic  owner  of  the 
Tablet.  A  conference  of  men  of  air  classes 
and  creeds  was  held  in  Dublin — a  conference, 
Mr.  Bright  then  called  it  in  the  House  of 
Commons,  "  of  earnest  men  from  all  parts  of 
Ireland,"  and  a  tenant  league  was  started. 
Everything  was  against  the  league.  The  in- 
difference of  England,  the  prostration  of  the 
country  after  the  famine  and  the  re})eIlion,  the 
apathy,  even  the  hostility,  of  the  Irish  Liberal 
members,  were  all  combined  against  it.  Then 
came  the  reorganization  of  the  Catholic  Church 
in  England,  and  Lord  John  Russell's  "Durham 
Letter,"  which  for  the  time  made  any  political 
alliance  between  Catholic  and  Protestant  im- 
possible. But  when,  in  1852,  the  Whig 
ministry  went  out,  and  Lord  Derby,  coming 
in  with  the  Tories,  dissolved  Parliament,  the 
chance  of  the  tenant  leaguers  came.  Some 
fifty  tenant-right  members  were  elected.  There 
was    a   Tenant-right    Party    in   the  House    of 


124       A  SHOR  T  ttlSTOn  Y  OP  milLAND. ' 

Commons,"  the  Irish  Brigade"  it  came  to  be 
called,  hut  it  did  little  good  to  th.e  cause  of 
tenant-right.  Its  leader  was  the  once  famous 
John  Sadleir ;  his  lieutenants  were  his  brother 
James,  Mr.  AVilliam  Keogh,  and  Mr.  Edmond 
O' Flaherty  ;  these  men  were  all  adventurers  and 
most  of  them  swindlers.  For  a  time  they 
deceived  the  Irish  people  by  their  professions 
and  protestations.  The  Sadleirs  owned  the 
Ti})})erary  Bank,  one  of  the  mo>t  })opuIar 
btinks  in  Ireland  ;  they  had  plenty  of  money, 
and  spent  it  lavishly  ;  they  started  a  paper,  the 
Tde.ijraph,  to  keej)  them  before  the  public; 
they  were  good  s})eakers,  and  they  led  good 
s})eakers  ;  they  were  demonstratively  Catholic, 
and  for  a  time  a  good  many  people  believed  in 
them,  though  they  were,  of  course,  distrusted 
by  most  intelligent  Irishmen. 

In  Noveml)er  Lord  Derby  went  out  of  office 
and  Whi"'  Lord  Aberdeen  came  in,  and  the 
leaders  of  the  noisy,  blatant,  brass  band  took 
office  under  him.  John  Sadleir  became  a  Lord 
of  the  Treasury ;  Keogh  was  msule  Irish 
Solicitor-general  ;  O'Flaherty  Conmiissioner  of 
Income  Tax.  There  was  fierce  indignation, 
but  they  kept  their  i)laces  and  their  course  for 
a  time.  Then  they  broke  up.  John  Sadleir 
had  embezzled,  swindled,  forged ;  he  ruined 
half  Ireland  with  his  fraudulent  bank ;  he 
made  use  of  his  position  under  government  to 
eml)ezzle  public  money  ;  he  committed  suicide. 
His  brother  was  expelled  from  the  House  of 
Commons ;  he  fled  the  country  and  Avas  heard 
of  no  more.  O'Flaherty  hurried  to  Denmark, 
where  there  was  no  extradition  treaty,  and  then 
to  New  York.  Keogh,  the  fourth  of  this 
famous  quadrilateral,  their  ally,  their  infimate, 


YOVNG  IRELAND.— FENIANISM.        125 

their  faithful  friend,  contrived  to  keep  himself 
clear  of  the  crash.  He  was  immediately  made 
a  judge,  and  was  conspicuous  for  the  rest  of 
his  life  for  his  unfailing  and  unaltering  hostility 
to  any  and  every  Irish  national  party. 

Once  again  there  was  a  period  of  political 
apathy,  as  far  as  constitutional  agitation  was 
concerned;  but  the '48  rebellion  had  left  re- 
bellious seed  behind  it.  Even  as  the  United 
Irishmen  had  generated  Repeal,  and  Repeal 
Young  Ireland,  so  Young  Ireland  generated  the 
Phcenix  Conspiracy,  and  the  Phoenix  Con- 
spiracy soon  grew  into  the  Fenian  Brotherhood, 
a  vast  organization,  with  members  in  all  parts 
of  the  world,  with  money  at  its  disposal,  and, 
more  than  money,  with  soldiers  trained  by  the 
American  Civil  War.  Irish-Americans  stead- 
ily promulgated  the  cause  in  Ireland,  and  pre- 
pared for  the  rising.  The  Fenians  in  America 
invaded  Canada  on  the  31st  of  May,  I860,  oc- 
cupied Fort  Erie,  defeated  the  Canadian  volun- 
teers, and  captured  some  flags.  But  the  United 
States  interfered  to  enforce  the  neutrality  of  its 
frontier,  arrested  most  of  the  leaders,  and  ex- 
tinofuished  the  invasion.  The  Fenians  in  Enof- 
land  planned  the  capture  of  Chester  Castle. 
The  scheme  was  to  seize  the  arms  in  the  castle, 
to  hasten  on  to  Holyhead,  to  take  possession 
of  such  steamers  as  might  be  there,  and  invade 
Ireland  before  the  authorities  in  Ireland  could 
be  prepared  for  the  l)low  ;  but  the  plan  was  be- 
trayed, and  failed.  Then  in  March,  18G7,  an 
attempt  at  a  general  rising  was  made  in  Ireland, 
and  failed  completely ;  the  very  elements 
fought  against  it.  Snow,  rare  in  Ireland,  fell 
incessantly,  and  practically  buried  the  rising  in 
its  white  shroud.     Large  numbers  of  prisoners 


m    A  ssoRT  niSTon  y  op  xnmAND. 

were  taken  in  England  and  Ireland,  and  sen- 
tenced to  penal  servitude.  In  Manchester  two 
Fenian  prisoners  were  released  from  the  prison- 
van  l)y  some  armed  Fenians,  and  in  the  scutHe 
a  policeman  was  killed.  For  this,  three  of  the 
rescuers — Allen,  Larkin,  and  O'Brien — were 
hanged.  Mr.  John  Stuart  Mill  and  Mr.  Bright 
strove  hard  to  save  their  lives,  with  all  the 
eloquence  and  all  the  influence  they  could  bring 
to  hear.  IVIr.  Swinburne  addressed  a  noble 
and  etpially  unsuccessful  poetic  "Appeal  "  to 
England  to  "  put  forth  her  strength,  and  re- 
lease," for  which  his  name  should  be  held  in 
eternal  honor  by  the  people  of  Ireland. 

A  little  later  a  wicked  and  foolish  attempt 
was  made  to  l)lo\v  uj)  the  Clerkenvvell  Prison 
in  order  to  set  free  some  imprisoned  Fenians. 
It  failed  to  do  this,  but  it  killed  some  innocent 
persons,  and  its  per[)etrator  was  hanged. 

But  the  succession  of  tliese  events  had  con- 
vinced a  statesman,  who  came  into  power 
shortly  after,  that  the  condition  of  Ireland 
urgently  called  for  remedial  legislation^  The 
Parliament  whi/h  met  at  the  close  of  1808, 
under  Mr.  Gladstone's  leadership  in  the  House 
of  Connnons,  was  known  to  be  prepared  to 
deal  with  some  of  the  most  pressing  of  Irish 
questions ;  of  these  the  foremost  was  the 
Irish  State  Church.  It  is  not  necessary  to 
enter  at  any  length  into  the  history  of  the 
manner  in  which  Mr.  Gladstone  accomplished 
the  disestablishment  and  the  disendowment  of 
the  State  Church  in  Ireland.  It  is  sufficient 
here  to  record  the  fact  that  it  was  disestablished 
and  disendowed.  For  centuries  it  had  been 
one  of  the  bitterest  emblem-;  of  oppression  in 
Ireland.     In    a    country    of    which    the    vast 


THE  LAND  QUESTION.  127 

majority  were  Catholic,  it  had  been,  in  the 
words  of  Lord  Sherbrooke,  then  Mr.  Lowe, 
"  kept  alive  with  the  greatest  difficulty  and  at 
the  greatest  expense."  It  was  an  exotic  with 
the  curse  of  barrenness  upon  it,  and  Mr.  Lowe 
called  upon  the  government  to  "  cut  it  down  ; 
why  cumbereth  it  the  ground?"  The  govern- 
ment replied  to  the  appeal,  and  the  State 
Church  in  Ireland  ceased  to  exist.  This  done, 
Mr.  Gladstone  turned  his  attention  to  the  Irish 
Land  Question — a  very  pressing  question  in- 
deed. 

CHAPTER  X. 

THE  LAND  QUESTION. 

In  all  the  melancholy  chronicles  of  Iri^h 
misery  and  disafiection,  and  of  unsuccessful 
English  measures  to  remedy  the  misery  and  to 
coerce  the  disaffection,  the  land  plays  an  im- 
portant part. 

After  the  incessant  confiscations  and  settle- 
ments of  Irish  soil,  the  vast  majority  of  the 
Irish  people  were  reduced  to  the  condition  of 
mere  tenants  at  will  of  landlords  who  were 
either  foreigners  in  fact  or  in  sympathy.  The 
majority  of  the  landlords  Avere  actuated  only 
by  the  desire  to  get  as  high  a  price  as  the}- 
could  for  their  land  ;  and  the  need  of  land  was 
so  imperative  to  the  Irish  peasant,  who  had 
nothing  but  land  to-live  upon,  that  he  was 
ready  to  take  any  terms,  no  matter  how  terrible. 
Of  course,  he  could  not  often  pay  the  terms 
exacted.  The  rack-rent  begot  the  eviction, 
and  the  eviction  begot  the  secret  societies — 
the   Ribbon    lodges — which   the  Irish  peasant 


128       A  SHOB  T  HISTOLY  OF  IRELAND. 

beufiin  to  look  upon  as  his  sole  protection 
against  landlord  tyranny.  What,  exactly, 
were  these  liibbon  lodges,  which  are  so  often 
named  in  all  accounts  of  the  Irish  Land 
Question  ?  For  more  than  half  a  century  the 
llibbon  Society  has  existed  in  Ireland,  and 
even  yet  it  is  im})ossible  to  say  for  certain  how 
it  began,  how  it  is  organized,  and  what  are  its 
exact  purposes.  Its  aim  seems  to  have  been 
chiefly  to  defend  the  land-serf  from  the  land- 
lord, l)ut  it  often  had  a  strong  political  purpose 
as  well.  Mr.  A.  M.  Sullivan,  in  his  ''New 
Ireland,"  states  that  he  lonsi:  a*jo  satisfied  him- 
self  that  the  Ril)l)onism  of  one  period  was  not 
the  Rilibonism  of  another,  and  that  the  version 
of  its  aims  and  character  prevalent  among  its 
members  in  one  i)art  of  Ireland  often  differed 
widely  from  those  })rofessed  in  some  other  part 
of  the  country.  "In  Ulster  it  professed  to  be 
a  defensive  or  retaliatory  league  against 
Orangeism  ;  in  Munster  it  was  at  first  a  combina- 
tion against  tithe-proctors ;  in  Connaught  it 
was  an  organization  against  rack-rentinof  and 
evictions  ;  in  Leinstcr  it  was  often  mere  trade- 
unionism,  dictating  hy  its  mandates  and  enforc- 
ing by  its  vengeance  the  employment  or  dis- 
missal of  workmen,  stewards,  and  even  domes- 
tics." All  sorts  of  evidence  and  information 
of  the  most  confused  kind  has  been  from  time 
to  time  given  with  respect  to  Kil)bonism,  much 
of  it  the  merest  fiction.  All  that  is  certain  is, 
that  it  and  many  other  formidable  defensi\'e 
organizations  existed  among  the  peasantry  of 
different  parts  of  Ireland. 

Perhai)s  Ireland  was  the  only  country  in  the 
world  in  which  a  man  had  nothhig  to  gain  by 
improving  the  land  he  lived  upon.     If  he   im- 


THE  LAND  Q  UESTION.  129 

proved  it,  he  was  certain  in  nine  cases  out  of 
ten  to  have  his  rent  raised  upon  him  as  a  reward 
for  his  labor.  He  was  absolutely  at  the  mercy, 
or  rather  the  want  of  mercy,  of  his  landlord, 
whom  he  perhajis  had  never  seen  :  for  many  of 
the  landlords  were  absentees,  livinir  out  of 
Ireland  on  the  money  they  itook  from  the 
country.  The  Irish  peasant's  misery  did  not 
pass  altogether  unnoticed.  Ever  since  the 
Union,  select  committees  had  again  and  again 
reported  the  distress  in  the  fullest  manner. 
Too  often  the  report  was  left  to  lie  in  bulky 
oblivion  upon  the  dusty  shelves  of  state 
libraries,  or  was  answered  by  a  coercive 
measure.  No  attempt  was  made  for  many 
years  to  feed  the  famished  peasant  or  to  relieve 
the  evicted  tenant.  Legislation  only  sought  to 
make  sure  that  while  their  complaints  were 
unheeded  their  hands  should  be  stayed  from 
successful  revenge.  The  greatest  concession 
that  government  made  for  many  generations  to 
the  misery  of  the  Irish  tenant  was  to  pass  an 
act  prohibiting  evictions  on  Christmas  Day 
and  Good  Friday,  and  enacting  that  the  roof  of 
a  tenant's  house  should  not  be  pulled  off  until 
the  inmates  had  left. 

A  select  committee  was  appointed  in  1819, 
under  the  presidency  of  Sir  John  Newton, 
which  reported  on  the  great  misery  of  the 
laboring  poor,  and  unavailingly  urged  agricul- 
tural reform,  especially  advising  the  reclama- 
tion of  waste  lands.  Another  committee  re- 
ported in  1823  that  the  condition  of  the  people 
was  miserable  ;  and,  also,  unsuccessfully  urged 
the  importance  of  some  form  of  agricultural 
relief.  Two  years  later,  in  1825,  a  fresh 
select  committee  gave  fresh  evidence  as  to  the 


130        A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 

misery  of  the  country,  and  made  fresh  sugges- 
tions that  something  should  be  done  for  the 
Irish  tenant ;  and,  as  before,  nothing  was  done. 
The  act  of  1793,  giving  every  forty-shilling  free- 
holder a  vote,  had  indirectly  mjured  the  people, 
as  the  landlords  leased  small  patches  of  land 
to  increase  their  political  power.  The  Emanci- 
pation Act  of  1829,  abolishing  the  vote  of  the 
forty-shilling  freeholder,  removed  with  it  the 
landlords'  interest  in  small  holdings,  and  so 
again  caused  misery  to  the  people  by  its  in- 
troduction of  the  system  of  clearances.  In 
1829  the  condition  of  the  tenant  fanners  and 
laboring  classes  of  Ireland  was  brought  forcibly 
under  the  notice  of  the  government  by  Mr. 
Brownlow,  who  went  so  far  as  to  ask  leave  to 
bring  in  a  bill  to  facilitate  the  reclamation 
of  waste  lands.  The  bill  passed  the  Commons, 
and  was  read  a  second  time  in  the  Lords.  It 
was  then  referred  to  a  select  committee,  and 
heard  of  no  more.  But,  on  the  other  hand, 
an  Arms  Bill,  which  an  English  peer  was 
found  to  denounce  as  vexatious  and  aggressive, 
was  successfully  carried.  In  1830  Mr.  Henry 
Grattan,  son  of  Ireland's  great  orator,  and  Mr. 
Spring  Rice,  afterwards  Lord  Monteagle,  urged 
the  sufferings  of  Ireland  upon  the  government, 
and  strongly  advocated  the  reclamation  of 
waste  lands.  But  nothing  whatever  was  done 
beyond  the  a])pointment  of  a  select  committee. 
This  select  committee  of  1830  had  the  same 
story  to  tell  that  all  its  unfortunate  predecessors 
told.     It  appealed  in  vain. 

The  valuation  of  Ireland  was  undertaken  in 
1830,  on  the  recommendation  of  a  select  com- 
mittee of  the  House  of  Commons  in  1824. 
To  insure  uniform  valuation,  an  act  was  passed 


THE  LAND  Q  UESTION.  131 

in  1836,  requiring  all  valuations  of  land  to  be 
based  on  a  fixed  scale  of  agricultural  produce, 
contained  in  the  act.  The  valuators  were  in- 
structed to  act  in  the  same  manner  as  if  em- 
ployed by  a  principal  landlord  dealing  with  a 
solvent  tenant.  The  average  valuation  proved 
to  be  about  twenty-five  per  cent,  under  the 
gross  rental  of  the  country.  In  1844  a  select 
committee  of  the  House  of  Commons  was  ap- 
pointed to  reconsider  the  question  ;  and  an  act 
passed  in  184(3  changed  the  principle  of  valua- 
tion from  a  relative  valuation  of  town  lands 
based  on  a  fixed  scale  of  agricultural  prodtice 
to  a  tenement  valuation  for  poor-law  rating,  to 
be  made  "  upon  an  estimate  of  the  net  annual 
value  ...  of  the  rent,  for  which,,  one  year 
with  another,  the  same  might  in  its  actual  state 
be  reasonably  expected  to  let  from  year  to  year." 
The  two  valuations  gave  substantially  the  same 
results.  In  1852  another  Valuation  Act  was 
passed,  returning  to  the  former  principle  of 
valuation  by  a  fixed  scale  of  agricultural 
produce  ;  but  Sir  Richard  Grifiith's  evidence  in 
1869  shows  the  valuation  employed  was  a  "  live- 
and-let-live  valuation,  according  to  the  state  of 
prices,  for  five  years  previous  to"  the  time  of 
valuation. 

In  1830  famine  and  riot  held  hideous  carnival. 
We  learn  from  the  speech  from  the  throne  that 
the  king  was  determined  to  crush  out  sedition 
and  disaffection  by  all  the  means  which  the  law 
and  the  constitution  placed  at  his  disposal,  but 
had  no  remedy  to  suggest  for  the  poverty  and 
distress  of  the  disaffected  people.  In  Februarj% 
1831,  Mr.  Smith  O'Brien  asked  leave  to  bring 
in  a  bill  for  the  relief  of  the  poor,  but  got  no 
hope  or  encouragement  from  the  go^•ernment. 


132       A  SHOMT  HISTOB  Y  OF  ICELAND. 

At  this  time  Mr.  Hume  attacked  the  ministry 
for  introducing  a  coercive  Irish  policy,  which 
was  in  direct  opposition  to  tlie  })romises  of  con- 
ciliation they  had  made  while  they  were  in 
opposition.  On  the  30th  of  March,  1831, 
Lord  Althorpe  proposed  a  vote  of  £50,000,  to 
be  advanced  to  commissioners  for  expenditure 
on  public  works  in  Ireland ;  but  its  eti'ect  was 
counterbalanced  four  months  later  by  the  in- 
troduction of  .Mr.  Stanley's  Arms  Bill,  which 
Lord  Althorpe  himself  described  as  one  of  the 
most  tyraimical  measures  he  ever  heard  pro- 
posed. A  Sub-letting  Act,  which  was  now 
under  discussion,  prohibited  the  letting  of 
property  by  a  lessee,  unless  with  the  express 
consent  of  the  proprietor.  According  to  Dr. 
Boyle,  who  attacked  the  bill,  so  long  as  the 
rural  population  had  no  better  employment  or 
sure  chance  of  subsistence  than  the  possession 
of  a  potato  field,  it  was  idle  to  expect  them  to 
submit  to  eviction  from  their  miserable  holdinifs. 
By  this  time  the  condition  of  Ireland  was  truly 
desperate.  Catholic  Emancipation  had,  indeed, 
allowed  Irish  Catholic  members  to  sit  in  the 
House  of  Connnons,  but  it  disfranchised  the 
forty-shilling  IVeeholders,  and  it  gave  the  land- 
lords greater  o})portunity  for  clearance. 

Government  answered  the  discontent  in  1831 
by  another  Coercion  Bill.  In  1834  Mr.  Poulett 
Scrope  made  an  unsuccessful  effort  to  do  some- 
thing for  the  Irish  tenant.  In  1835  Mr. 
Sharman  Crawford,  then  member  for  Dundalk, 
moved  for  leave  to  bring  in  a  bill  to  amend  the 
law  of  landlord  and  tenant,  and  he  reintroduced 
his  measure  on  the  10th  of  iNIarch,  1836  ;  he 
obtained  leave  to  bring  in  a  bill,  and  that  was 
the  end  of  it.     In   1837    Mr.    Lynch    asked 


THE  LAND  QUESTION.  133 

leave  to  bring  in  u  1)111  on  waste  lands,  and  was 
as  unsuccessful  as  Mr.  Sharnian  Crawford. 

In  1842  the  Irish  Artificial  Drainaire  Act  did 
something  towards  the  reclamation  of  waste 
lands,  which,  however,  was  of  little  use  until 
amended  l)y  the  Smnmary  Proceedings  Act  of 
1843.  1843  is  a  memorable  e])och  in  the 
history  of  the  Irish  land  agitation.  It  w^as 
the  year  of  the  Devon  Commission,  which 
Sir  Robert  Peel  appointed  in  answer  to  the 
repeated  entreaties  of  Mr.  Sharman  Crawford. 
The  evidence  of  the  Devon  Commission,  in  its 
two  years'  labors,  showed,  as  all  other  com- 
missions had  shown,  that  the  condition  of  the 
Irish  })easant  was  miserable  in  the  extreme  ; 
that  the  fatal  s^'stem  of  land  tenure  was  the 
cause  of  the  misery ;  and  urged .  that  the 
tenant  should  be  secured  fair  remuneration 
for  his  outlay  of  capital  and  labor.  Lord 
Devon  was  determined  that,  if  he  could  help 
it,  the  commission  sliould  not  prove  valueless. 
On  the  (ith  of  May,  1845,  he  printed  a  number 
of  petitions,  urging  l^irliament*  to  secure  to 
industrious  tenants  the  benefits  of  their  im- 
provements. Lord  Stanley  replied  by  intro- 
ducing a  Compensation  for  Disturbance  Bill  in 
June,  but  he  had  to  abandon  it  in  Julv  throuirh 
the  opposition  of  the  Lords,  the  Commons,  ar  d 
the  select  committee  to  whom  it  had  been  in- 
trusted. Mr.  Sharman  Crawford  then  intro- 
duced the  Tenant-right  Bill,  Avhich  he  had  kept 
back  in  1843  in  order  to  await  the  result  of  the 
Devon  Commission.  In  184(5  Lord  Lincoln, 
urffed  by  Mr.  Sharman  CraAvford,  brought  in 
a  Compensation  for  Disturbance  Bill,  but  the 
ministry  resigned  before  it  came  to  a  second 
reading,  and  so  it  was  forgotten.     On  the  10th 


134     A  SHORT  HJSTOIiY  OF  IRELAND. 

of  June,  1847,  Mr.  Sharman  Crawford's 
renant-right  Bill  was  rejected  by  a  majority  of 
eiofhtv-seven.  He  l)rou<»;lit  it  forward  aofaiii  in 
1848,  and  it  was  defeated  on  the  5th  of  April 
by  a  majority  of  twenty-three.  In  1848  Sir 
William  Somerville,  as  Irish  Secretary,  brought 
in  a  l)ill  which  was  jiractically  the  same  as  Lord 
Lincoln's  measure  of  1840.  The  Irish  mem- 
bers suppoiled  it.  The  report  upon  the  bill 
was  not  ready  until  too  near  the  end  of  the 
session  to  make  any  further  progress  with  it, 
but  the  govermnent  determined  that  Ireland 
should  not  want  some  legislation  during  the 
session,  and  so  they  suspended  the  Habeas 
Corpus  Act.  In  1849  Mr.  Horsman  urged  un- 
successfully the  presentation  of  an  address 
])ointing  out  to  her  majesty  the  condition  of 
Ireland.  Early  in  1850  Sir  William  Somer- 
ville reintroduced  his  bill,  which  was  read  a 
second  time,  given  a  committee,  and  suffered  to 
disappear.  Mr.  Sharman  Crawford  again  un- 
successfully endeavored  to  push  forward  his 
Tenant-right  Bill.  In  1851  Sir  II.  W.  Barron's 
motion  for  a  Committee  of  the  whole  House  to 
inquire  into  the  state  of  Ireland  was  negatived 
by  a  majority  of  nine.  Nothing,  therefore, 
had  been  done  for  the  Irish  tenant  since  the  re- 
port of  tlie  Devon  Commission.  The  Encum- 
bered Estates  Act  had  been  passed  for  the  Irish 
landlord.  On  tlie  10th  of  February,  1852, 
Mr.  Sharman  Crawford  obtained  leave  to  bring 
in  a  bill  to  regulate  the  Ulster  custom.  Then 
the  ministry  went  out  of  office,  and  the  bill, 
on  its  second  reading,  was  rejected  by  a  majority 
of  one  hundred  and  ten,  under  Lord  Derby's 
Conservative  government.  The  government 
showed  a   disposition  to   do   something  in  the 


THE  LAND  QUESTION.  186 

Irish  question.  Mr.  Napier,  the  Irish  Attorney- 
general,  drafted  four  bills  for  regulating  the 
relations  of  landlord  and  tenant  in  Ireland,  a 
Land  Improvement  Bill,  a  Landlord  and 
Tenant  Law  Consolidation  Bill,  a  Leasing 
Powers  Bill,  and  a  Tenants'  Improvements 
Compensation  Bill.  In  1858  the  committee 
appointed  to  consider  Mr.  N-a pier's  bills  and 
Mr.  Sharman  Crawford's  bill  rejected  the  latter 
measure,  and  considerably  amended,  to  the 
disadvantage  of  the  tenant,  the  fourth  of  Mr. 
Xapier's  measures.  Since  ]\Ir.  Napier  had  in- 
troduced them  the  Liberal  party  had  come  into 
power.  Mr.  Napier,  though  in  opposition,  still 
did  all  he  could  to  assist  the  passing  of  his  own 
measures,  but  his  party  fought  bitterly  against 
them.  In  1854  the  bills  were  referred  to  a 
select  committee  of  the  House  of  Lords.  The 
Tenants' Compensation  Bill  was  condemned,  and 
the  other  bills  sent  down  to  the  House  of  Com- 
mons without  it.  In  1855  Mr.  Sergeant  Shee 
endeavored  to  bring  in  a  bill  that  was  practi- 
cally the  same  as  this  rejected  measure,  and  the 
government  took  charge  of  it  only  to  abandon 
it  before  the  opposition  of  the  landlords.  Mr. 
Sharman  Crawford's  Tenant  Bill  was  in  conse- 
quence introduced  again  by  iMr.  George  Henry 
Moore,  the  leader  of  the  Irish  party,  in  185(), 
but  it  had  to  be  dropped  in  consequence  of  the 
opposition  of  the  government.  It  was  again 
])rought  forward  by  Mr.  Moore  in  1857,  and 
again  withdrawn.  In  1858  Mr.  Seraeant  Slice's 
Tenant  Compensation  Bill  was  reintroduced  by 
Mr.  John  Francis  Maguire,  then  leader  of 
the  Irish  party,  and  defeated  by  a  majority  of 
forty-five.  The  indifference  of  the  govern- 
ment at   this  time  to  the   Irish  question  was 


136      A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 

made  the  more  marked  by  the  fact  that  the 
land  question  of  Bengal  had  been  settled  in  ac- 
cordance with  ancient  principles  of  •Indian  law, 
which  granted  to  the  Indian  subject  much  that 
was  denied  the  Irish  subject.  In  1860,  how- 
ever, the  famous  Land  Act  was  passed,  which 
proved  so  unsatisfactory.  The  framers  of  the 
Act  of  18fj0  tried  to  simplify  the  relations  of 
landlord  and  tenant  by  sweeping  away  all  re- 
mains of  the  feudal  connection,  and  by  estab- 
lishing an  absolute  principle  of  free  trade  and 
freedom  of  contract  as  opposed  to  tenure. 

But  the  Act  of  1860  was  a  failure,  m  so  far 
as  it  was  based  upon  that  principle  of  freedom 
of  contract  which  is  wholly  unsuited 
to  the  Irish  Land  Question.  "The  Irish 
circumstances  and  Irish  ideas  as  to  social  and 
agricultural  economy,"  said  John  Stuart 
Mill,  "are  the  2:eneral  ideas  and  circumstances 
of  the  human  race.  It  is  the  English  ideas 
and  circumstances  that  are  peculiar.  Ireland 
is  in  the  mid-stream  of  human  existence  and 
humane  feeling  and  opinion.  It  is  England 
that  is  in  one  of  the  lateral  channels." 

To  those  who  ask  why  the  tenants  take  the 
land  when  they  cannot  fulfil  their  contract,  the 
answer  is.  They  cannot  help  themselves  in  what 
they  do.  The  Irish  cling  to  their  land  because 
all  their  other  means  of  livelihood  have  been 
destroyed.  They  make  the  best  terms  they  can, 
which,  in  truth,  means  bowing  to  whatever  the 
master  of  the  situation  imposes.  The  freedom- 
of-contract  argument  has  been  very  fairly  dis- 
posed of  by  asking,  "  Why  does  Parliament  re- 
gulate, or  fix  and  limit,  the  price  which  a  rail- 
way company  charges  for  a  travelling  ticket? 
Why  are  not  the  contracting  parties,  the  rail- 


THE  LAND  Q  UESTION.  137 

way  company  and  the  traveller,  left  to  settle 
between  them  how  much  the  price  in  every 
particular  case  shall  be?"  It  is  because  the 
law  says  they  are  not  free  contracting  parties  ;  , 
the  railway  company  has  a  monopoly  of  that 
which  is  in  a  sense  a  necessity  to  the  traveller 
and  others.'  Also,  if  the  matter  were  left  to 
contract,  travellers  would  i)ractically  have  to 
give  five  shillings  a  mile  if  the  company  de- 
manded it.  The  inmiediate  efl'ect  of  the  act 
was  to  produce  an  inmiense  flood  of  emigration, 
and  to  create  the  Fenian  Conspiracy.  INIr.  Chi- 
chester Fortescue's  bill  of  1866,  to  amend  that 
of  1860,  of  course  fell  through.  In  1867  the 
Tories  brought  in  a  fresh  bill,  which  was  prac- 
tically Lord  Stanley's  bill  of  1845,  which  had 
to  be  abandoned.  In  1869  Mr.  Gladstone  came  . 
in,  and  on  the  ir)th  of  February,  1870,  he 
brought  in  his  famous  Bill  to  Amend  the  Law 
of  Landlord  and  Tenant  in  Ireland,  the  first  bill 
that  really  did  anything  to  carry  out  the  recom- 
mendation of  the  Devon  Commission.  But  it 
did  not  really  place  the  tenant  beyond  the 
vicious  control  of  the  landlord.  It  allowed 
him  the  privilege  of  going  to  law  with  the  land- 
lord ;  and  going  to  law  in  such  a  case  generally 
meant  the  success  of  the  man  who  Mas  longest 
able  to  fight  it  out.  The  three  objects  of  the 
Land  Act  of  1870  were — first,  to  obtain  for  the 
tenants  in  Ireland  security  of  tenure  ;  second, 
to  encourage  the  making  of  improvements 
throughout  the  country  ;  and,  third,  to  get  a 
peasant  proprietorship  in  Ireland.  It  made  no 
alteration  in  the  tenancies  held  under  the  Ulster 
tenant-right  custom,  which  it  merely  sanctioned 
and  enforced  against  the  landlords  of  estates 
subject  to  it.     The  Ulster  custom  consists  of 


138      A  SHORT  HlSTon  Y  OF  IRELAND. 

two  chief  features — pennissive  fixity  of  tenure, 
iiiul  the  tenant's  riijht  to  sell  the  o-ood-will  of 
his  farm.  For  a  louix  time  the  h()})e  of  getting: 
the  Ulster  custom  transferred  to  the  other 
provinces  was  almost  the  highest  :unl)ition  of  the 
Irish  peasant. 

The  framers  of  the  act  of  1870  dared  not 
state  openly,  and  it  was  constantly  denied,  that 
the  ohject  of  the  new  measure  was  to  give  the 
tenant  any  estate  in  the  land,  or  to  transfer  to 
him  any  i)ortion  of  the  absolute  ownership. 
Its  principle  of  arrangement  between  landlord 
and  tenant  was  described  as  a  process  by  which 
bad  landlords  were  obliged  to  act  as  the  good 
landlords  did,  hut  it  might  have  been  more 
justly  styled  an  enactment  hy  which  the  amuse- 
ment of  e\  icting  tenants  wtis  made  a  monopoly 
of  the  wealthier  proprietors.  The  principle  of 
compensation  for  disturbance  which  it  intro- 
duced was  clumsy  and  nni)erfect,  and  the  eight 
clauses  which  attemj)ted  to  create  a  peasant 
proprietorship  in  Ireland  were  no  more  success- 
ful than  the  rest  of  the  bill.  "The  cause  of 
their  failure  is  obvious,"  says  Mr.  Richey,  "to 
any  one  acquainted  with  the  nature  of  the 
landed  estates  title  which  it  was  considered  de- 
sirable for  the  tenant  to  obtain.  A  Landed- 
estates-Coiirt  conveyance  affects  not  only  the 
rights  of  the  parties  to  the  pro;'eedings,  but 
binds  persons,  whether  })arties  or  not,  and  ex- 
tinffuislies  all  riorhts  which  are  inconsistent  with 
the  terms  of  the  grant  by  the  court.  If  by  any 
mistake  more  lands  than  should  properly  be 
sold  are  included  in  the  grant,  or  the  most  in- 
disputable rights  of  third  i)ai'ties  are  not  noticed 
in  the  body  of  the  grant  or  the  annexed 
schedule,  irreparable  injustice  is  done  and  the 


THE  LAND  QUESTION.  139 

injured  parties  have  no  redress."  The  fact 
that  the  court  was  not  made  the  instrument  for 
the  i)erpetuation  of  the  grossest  frauds  is  due 
sok^Iy  to  the  stringency  of  its  rules  and  the  in- 
telligence of  its  officers.  Interwoven  with  all  these 
abortive  land  schemes  and  land  measures  was  in- 
cessant uninterrupted  coercive  legislation.  From 
1796to  l(S02anInsurrection  Actwasin  force, and 
from  1797to  1802  tliellabeas  Corpus  Act  was  sus- 
pended. From  1803  to  1805  the  country  was 
under  martial  law,  and  from  the  same  year  to 
1806  Habeas  Corpus  was  suspended.  Insur- 
rection Acts  were  in  force  from  1807  to  1810, 
from  1814  to  1818,  from  1822  to  1825. 
Hal:)eas  Corpus  was  again  suspended  in  1822  to 
1823.  In  1829,  in  tl.e  debate  on  Catholic 
Emancipation,  Sir  Robert  Peel  was  able  to  say 
that "  for  scarcely  a  year  during  the  period  that 
has  elapsed  since  the  Union  has  Ireland  been 
governed  by  the  ordinary  course  of  law." 
From  the  date  of  that  utterance  to  the  present 
day  the  countrv  has  not  been  iroverned  bv  the 
ordinary  law  for  scarcely  a  single  year.  Anns 
Acts,  suspensions  of  Habeas  Corpus,  changes 
of  venue.  Peat  e  l*reservation  Acts,  and  coercive 
measures  of  all  kinds,  succeed,  accompany, 
and  overlap  each  other  with  melancholy  per- 
sistence. Roughly  s})eaking,  Ireland  from  the 
Union  to  1880  was  never  governed  by  the  ordi- 
nary law.  The  Union,  according  to  its  ad- 
vocates, was  to  be  the  bond  of  lasting  peace 
and  affection  l)etween  the  two  countries  ;  it  was 
followed  by  eighty  years  of  coercive  legislation. 
It  was  grimly  fitting  that  the  Union  so  unlaw- 
fully accomplished  could  only  be  sustained  by 
the  complete  abandonment  of  all  ordinary  pro- 
cesses of  law  thereafter. 


140      A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 
CHAPTER  XI. 

HOME  RULE. THE  LAND  LEAGUE. 

For    some    years    after   the    failure   of    the 
Fenian  insurrection  there  was  no  political  agita- 
tion in   Ireland ;   but  in   1873  a  new  national 
movement  began  to  make  itself  felt ;  this  was 
the  Home  Rule  movement.      It  had  l>een  ijrad- 
ually  formed  since  1870  by  one  or  two  leading 
Irishmen,  who  thought  the  time  was  ripe  for  a 
new  constitutional   etfort ;    chief    among  them 
was  Mr.  Isaac  Butt,  a  Protestant,  an  emment 
lawyer,  and  an  earnest  politician.      The  move- 
ment spread  rapidly,  and  took  a  firm  hold  of 
the  popular  mind.    'After  the  general  election 
of    1874,  some  sixty  Irish  memljers  were  re- 
turned,  who  had  stood  before  their  constitu- 
encies as  Home  Rulers.     The  Home  Rule  de- 
mand is  clear  and  simple  enough  ;   it  asks  for 
Ireland  a  separate  govermnent,  still  allied  with 
the    imperial    government,    on    the    principles 
which  regulate  the  alliance  between  the  United 
States  of  America.     The  proposed  Irish  Par- 
liament in  College  Green  would  bear  just  the 
same  relation  to  the  Parliament  at  Westminster 
that  the  Legislature  and  Senate  of  every  Ameri- 
can  state   bear  to  the   head   authority  of   tlie 
Congress  in  the  Capitol  at  AVashington.     All 
that  relates  to  local  business  it  was  proposed  to 
delegate  to  the  Irish  Assem])ly  ;  all  questions 
of  imperial  policy  were  still   to  be  left  to  the 
imperial  government.     There  was  nothing  very 
startling,    very    daringly    imiovating,    in    the 
scheme.      In  most  of  the  dependencies  of  Great 
Britain,  Home  Rule  systems  of  some  kind  were 
already  established.     In  Canada,  m  the  Aus- 


HOME  R  ULE.—THE  LA ND  LEA O  UE.     Ul 

tralasian  colonies,  tlie  principle  might  be  seen 
at  work  u[)on  a  large  scale ;  upon  a  small 
scale  it  was  to  be  studied  nearer  home  in  the 
neighboring  Island  of  Man.  One  of  the  chief 
objections  raised  to  the  new  proposal  by  those 
who  thought  it  really  worth  while  to  raise  any 
objections  at  all,  was  that  it  would  be  practi- 
cally impossible  to  decide  the  border  line  be- 
tween local  affairs  and  imperial  affairs.  The 
answer  to  this  is,  of  course,  that  what  has  not 
been  found  impossible,  or  indeed  exceedingly 
difficult,  in  the  case  of  the  American  republic 
and  its  component  states,  or  in  the  case  of  Eng- 
land and  her  American  and  Australasian  colon- 
ies, need  not  be  found  to  present  unsurpassable 
difficulties  in  the  case  of  Great  Britain  and  Ire- 
land. 

"  If  th^  Home  Rule  theorA',"  savs  Mr.  Leckv. 
"brinofs  with  it  much  embarrassment  to  Enoflish 
statesmen,  it  is  at  least  a  theory  which  is  within 
the  limits  of  the  constitution,  which  is  sup- 
ported by  means  that  are  perf!ectly  loyal  and 
legitmiatc,  and  which,  like  every  other  theory, 
must  be  discussed  and  judged  upoii,  its  merits." 
This  is  exactly  what  English  statesihen  and  pol- 
iticians generally  have  refused  to^  do.  They 
Mill  have  none  of  the  Home  Rule  theory  :  they 
will  not  admit  that  it  comes  withffi  the  limits 
of  a  constitutional  question  ;  Home  Rule  never 
could  and  never  shall  be  aranted,  and  so  what 
is  the  use  of  discussins:  it?  This  was  certainly 
the  temper  in  which  Home  Rule  was  at  first  re- 
ceived in  and  out  of  Parliament.  Of  late  days, 
politicians  who  have  come  to  concede  the  possi- 
bility, if  not  the  practicability,  of  some  system 
of  local  government  for  Ireland,  still  fight  oflf 
the  consideration  of  the  question  by  saying, 


142       A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 

"What  is  the  use  of  discussing  Homo  Rule 
until  A  ou  who  support  it  present  us  with  a  clear 
and  defined  plan  for  our  consideration?"  This 
form  of  arijunient  is  no  less  unreasonable  than 
the  other.  The  sui)i)orters  of  Home  Rule  very 
fairly  say,  "  We  maintain  the  necessity  for  es- 
tablisliinjr  a  system  of  local  government  in  Ire- 
land.  That  cannot  be  done  without  the  gov- 
ernment ;  till,  therefore,  the  government  is 
willing  to  admit  that  Home  Rule  is  a  question 
to  be  entertained  at  all,  it  is  no  use  bringing 
forward  any  particular  plan  ;  when  it  is  once 
admitted  that  some  system  of  Home  Rule  must 
be  established  in  Ireland,  then  will  be  the  time 
for  brinmno;  forward  legislative  schemes  and 
plans,  and  out  of  the  multiplicity  of  ideas  and 
suggestions  creatins;  a  complete  and  cohesive 
whole."  The  principle  of  Home  Rule  obtains 
in  every  state  of  the  American  Union,  though 
the  plan  of  Home  Rule  in  each  particular  state 
is  widely  different.  The  principle  of  Home 
Rule  obtains  in  every  great  colony  of  the  crown, 
but  the  plan  pursued  by  each  colony  is  of  a  very 
diflferent  kind.  When  the  people  of  the  two 
countries  have  ag^reed  together  to  allow  Ireland 
to  manage  for  herself  her  own  local  affairs,  it 
will  be  very  easy  to  bring  forward  some  scheme 
exactly  deciding  the  form  which  the  conceded 
Home  Rule  is  to  take.  But  to  bring  forward 
the  completed  scheme  before  a  common  basis  of 
negotiation  has  been  established  would  be  more 
the  duty  of  a  new  Abbe  Sieyes,  with  a  new 
"theory  of  irregular  verbs,"  than  of  a  practical 
and  serious  politician. 

At  first  the  Home  Rule  party  was  not  very 
active.  Mr.  Butt  used  to  have  a  regular  Home 
Rule  debate  once  every  session,  when  he  and 


HOM£  H ULE.-THE  LAJVD  LEAGUE.    143 

his  followers  stated  their  views,  and  a  division 
was  taken  and  the  Home  Rulers  were,  of  course, 
defeated.  Yet,  while  the  English  House  of 
Commons  was  thus  steadily  rejecting,  year  after 
year,  the  demand  made  for  Home  Rule  by  the 
large  majority  of  the  Irish  members,  it  was  af- 
fording a  strong  argument  in  favor  of  some  sys- 
tem of  local  government,  hy  consistently  out- 
voting every  proposition  brought  forward  by 
the  bulk  of  the  Irish  members  relating  to  Irish 
questions.  In  1874  it  threw  out  the  Irish  Mu- 
nicipal Franchise  Bill,  the  Irish  Municipal  Priv- 
ileges Bill,  and  the  bill  for  the  purchase  of  Irish 
railways.  In  1875  it  threw  out  the  motion  for 
inquiry  into  the  working  of  the  Land  Act,  the 
Grand  Jury  Reform  Bill,  the  Irish  Municipal 
Corporations  Bill,  the  Municipal  Franchise  Bill. 
In  187(1  it  threw  out  the  Irish  Fisheries  Bill, 
the  Irish  Borough  Franchise  Bill,  the  Irish  Reg- 
istration of  Voters  Bill,  and  the  Irish  Land  Bill. 
These  were  all  measures  purely  relating  to  Irish 
«tiairs,  which,  had  they  been  left  to  the  decision 
of  the  Irish  meml)ers  alone,  would  have  been 
carried  by  overwhelming  majorities.  The  Irish 
vote  in  favor  of  these  measures  was  seldom 
less  than  twice  as  great  as  the  opposing  Aote  ; 
in  some  cases  it  was  three  times  as  great,  in 
in  some  cases  it  was  four,  seven,  and  eight 
times  greater. 

Mr.  Butt  and  his  followers  had  proved  the 
force  of  the  desire  for  some  sort  of  national 
crovernment  in  Ireland,  but  the  strenath  of  the 
movement  they  had  created  now  called  for 
stronger  k'aders.  A  new  man  was  coming  into 
Irish  political  life,  who  was  destined  to  be  the 
most  remarkable  Irish  leader  since  O'Connell. 

Mr.   Charles  Stewart  Parnell,   who  entered 


U4       A  SHOR  T  HmTOB  Y  OP  IRELAND. 

the  House  of  Commons  in  1875  as  member  for 
Mea  h,  was  a  descendant  of  the  English  poet 
Parnell,  and  of  the  two  Parnells,  father  and 
son,  John  and  Henry,  who  stood  by  Grattan  to 
the  last  in  the  strujjsle  aiiainst  the  Union.  He 
was  a  grand-nephew  of  Sir  Henry  Parnell,  the 
first  Lord  Congleton,  the  advanced  reformer, 
and  friend  of  I^ord  Grey  and  Lord  Melbourne. 
He  was  Protestant,  and  a  member  of  the  Pro- 
testant Synod.  Mr.  Parnell  set  himself  to  form 
a  party  of  Lislnnen  in  the  House  of  Commons 
who  should  be  al)solutely  inde})endent  of  any 
English  political  party,  and  who  would  go  their 
own  way,  with  only  the  cause  of  Ireland  to  in- 
fluence them.  Mr.  Parnell  had  all  the  qualities 
that  go  to  make  a  good  political  leader,  and  he 
succeeded  in  his  purpose.  I'he  more  advanced 
men  in  and  out  of  Parliament  began  to  look  up 
to  him  as  the  real  representative  of  the  popular 
voice.  In  1878  ]Mr.  Butt  died.  He  had  done 
good  service  in  his  life  ;  he  had  called  the  Irish 
Home  Kule  party  into  existence,  and  he  had 
done  his  best  to  form  a  cohesive  i)arliamentary 
party.  If  his  Avays  were  not  the  ways  most  in 
keeping  with  the  political  needs  of  the  hour, 
he  was  an  honest  and  able  politician,  he  was  a 
sincere  Irishman,  and  his  name  deserves  grate- 
ful recollection  in  Ireland.  The  leadership  of 
the  Irish  i)arliamentary  party  was  given  to  Mr. 
AVilliam  Shaw,  member  for  Cork  county,  an 
able,  intelligent  man,  Avho  proved  himself  in 
many  Avays  a  good  leader.  In  quieter  times 
his  authority  might  have  remained  unquestioned, 
but  these  Avcre  unquiet  times.  The  decorous 
and  demure  attitude  of  the  early  Home  Rule 
party  was  to  be  changed  into  a  more  aggressive 
action,  and  Mr.   Parnell  was  the  champion  of 


HOME  n  VLB.— THE  LAND  LEA  O  UE.    143 

the  change.  It  was  soon  obvious  that  he  was 
the  real  leader  recognized  by  the  majority  of 
the  Irish  Home  Rule  members,  and  by  the 
country  behind  them. 

Mr.  Parnell  and  his  following  have  been 
bitterly  denounced  for  pursuing  an  ob- 
structive policy.  They  are  often  w^ritten  about 
as  if  they  had  invented  obstruction  ;  as  if  ob- 
struction of  the  most  audacious  kind  had  never 
been  practised  in  the  House  of  Commons  be- 
fore Mr.  Parnell  entered  it.  It  may,  perhaps, 
be  admitted  that  the  Irish  members  made  more 
use  of  obstruction  than  had  been  done  before 
their  time  ;  yet  it  should  be  remembered  that 
the  early  Irish  obstruction  was  on  English 
measures,  and  was  carried  on  with  the  active 
advice  and  assistance  of  English  members. 
The  Tory  party  was  then  in  power,  and  the  ad- 
vanced Liberals  were  found  often  enough  voting 
with  the  Obstructionists  in  their  fiercest  ob- 
struction to  the  existing  government.  The 
Irish  party  fought  a  good  fight  on  the  famous 
South  African  Bill,  a  fight  which  not  a  few 
Englishmen  now  would  heartily  wash  had  proved 
successful.  It  should  also  be  remembered  that 
Mr.  Parnell  did  some  good  service  to  English 
legislation :  he  w^orked  hard  to  reform  the 
Factories  and  Workshops  Bill  of  1878,  the 
Prison  Code,  and  the  Army  and  Navy  Mutiny 
Bills.  Many  of  his  amendments  were  admitted 
to  be  of  value  ;  many,  in  the  end,  were  accepted. 
His  earnest  efforts  contributed  in  no  small 
degree  to  the  abolition  of  flogging  in  the  army. 

The  times  undoubtedly  were  unquiet ;  the 
policy  which  was  called  in  England  obstructive 
and  in  Ireland  active  was  obviously  popular 
with   the  vast  majority  of    the   Irish  people. 


U6     A  SHOUT  HISTOJR  V  OF  tBELAND. 

The  Land  Question,  too,  was  coming  up  again, 
and  in  a  stronger  form  than  ever.  Mr.  Butt, 
not  very  long  before  his  death,  had  warned  the 
House  of  Commons  that  the  old  land  war  was 
going  to  break  out  anew,  and  he  was  laughed 
at  for  his  vivid  fancy  by  the  English  press  and 
by  English  public  opinion ;  but  he  proved  a 
true  prophet.  Mr.  Parnell  had  carefully  studied 
the  condition  of  the  Irish  tenant,  and  he  saw 
that  the  Land  Act  of  1870  was  not  the  last 
word  of  legislation  on  his  behalf.  Mr.  Parnell 
was  at  first  an  ardent  advocate  of  what  came  to 
be  known  as  the  three  F's — fair  rent,  fixity  of 
tenure,  and  free  sale.  But  the  three  F's  were 
soon  to  be  put  aside  in  favor  of  more  advanced 
ideas.  Outside  Parliament  a  strenuous  and 
earnest  man  was  preparing  to  inaugurate  the 
gi'eatest  land  agitation  ever  seen  in  Ireland. 
Mr.  Michael  Davitt  was  the  son  of  an  evicted 
tenant ;  his  earliest  youthful  impressions  had 
been  of  the  misery  of  the  Irish  peasant  and  the 
tyranny  of  the  Irish  landlord.  The  evicted 
tenant  and  his  family  came  to  England,  to 
Lancashire.  The  boy  Michael  was  put  to  work 
in  a  mill,  where  he  lost  his  right  arm  by  a 
machine  accident.  When  he  grew  to  be  a 
young  man  he  joined  the  Fenians,  and  in  1870, 
on  the  evidence  of  an  infomier,  he  was  arrested 
and  sentenced  to  fifteen  years'  penal  servitude  ; 
seven  years  later  he  was  let  out  on  ticket-of- 
leave.  In  his  long  imprisonment  he  had  thought 
deeply  upon  the  political  and  social  condition 
of  Ireland  and  the  best  means  of  improving  it. 
When  he  came  out  he  had  abandoned  his 
dreams  of  armed  rebellion,  and  he  went  in  for 
constitutional  agitation  to  reform-  the  Irish 
land  system. 


HOME  R  ULE.—TIIE  LA  ND  LEA  O  UE.     147 

The  land  system  needed  reforming  ;  tlie  con- 
dition of  the  tenant  was  only  humanly  endur- 
able in  years  of  irood  harvest.  The  three  years 
from  187()  to  1879  were  years  of  successive  bad 
harvests.  The  failure  of  the  j^otato  croj) 
threatened  the  bulk  of  the  population  of  Ire- 
land witii  starvation.  The  horrors  of  the 
famine  of  1847  seemed  likely  to  be  seen  again 
in  Ireland.  The  Irish  members  urg-ed  Lord 
Beaconstield's  government  to  take  some  action 
to  relieve  the  distress  ;  but  nothing  was  done, 
and  the  distress  increased.  Early  in  August  it 
was  plain  that  the  harvest  was  gone  ;  the  potato 
crop,  which  had  fallen  in  1877  from  £12,400,000 
to  £5,200,000,  had  now  fallen  to  £3,300,000  ; 
famine  was  close  at  hand.  Mr.  Davitthad  been 
in  America,  planning  out  a  land  organization, 
and  had  returned  to  Ireland  to  carry  out  his 
plan.  Land  meetings  were  held  in  many  parts 
of  Ireland,  and  in  October  Mr.  Parnell,  Mr. 
Davitt,  Mr.  Patrick  Egan,  and  Mr.  Thomas 
Brennan  founded  the  Irish  National  Land 
League,  the  most  powerful  political  organiza- 
tion that  had  been  formed  in  Ireland  since  the 
Union.  The  objects  of  the  Land  League  were 
the  abolition  of  the  existing  landlord  system 
and  the  introduction  of  peasant  proprietorship. 

The  Land  League  once  founded,  Mr.  Parnell 
immediately  went  to  America  to  raise  monex' 
to  meet  the  distress ;  and  while  in  America  he 
was  invited  to  state  the  case  of  Ireland  before 
the  House  of  Representatives  at  Washington. 
He  returned  to  Ireland  with  nearly  $250,000 
for  the  relief  of  distress,  and  many  thousands 
for  the  political  purposes  of  the  Land  League. 
Relief  was  indeed  imperative,  famine  was 
abroad,  and  eviction  had  kept  pace  with  famine. 


148        A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 

Thero  were  over  twelve  hundred  evictions  in 
1870,  over  thirteen  hundred  in  1877,  over 
seventeen  hundred  in  1878,  and  nearly  four 
thousand  in  1879 — over  ten  thousand  evictions 
in  four  vears.  The  jjovernment  did  nothing  to 
stay  famine  or  eviction  ;  it  contented  itself  with 
putting  Mr.  Davitt  and  some  other  Land 
Leaguers  on  trial  for  some  speeches  they  had 
made,  ])ut  the  prosecutions  had  to  be  abandoned. 
The  Land  League  Fund,  large  as  it  was,  was 
not  nearly  enough  to  cope  with  the  existing 
distress,  and  fresh  funds  were  raised  by  the 
Lord  Mayor  of  Dublin,  iNIr.  E.  D.  Gray,  M. 
P.,  and  bv  the  Duchess  of  Marlborouijh ,  wife 
of  the  Lord-lieutenant,  whose  generous  action 
was  in  curious  contradiction  to  the  rei)eated 
assurances  of  the  government  that  no  serious 
distress  existed.  The  condition  of  the  country 
was  strenathening  the  Land  League  and  weak- 
ening  the  government.  Lord  Beaconsfield 
appealed  to  the  country,  denouncing  the 
Liberal  i)arty  for  their  sympathy  with  Irish 
faction.  The  Home  Kule  members  of  the 
House  of  Conmions  issued  a  manifesto  calling 
upon  Irishmen  everywhere  to  vote  against  the 
supporters  of  Lord  Beaconstield's  government. 
The  advice  was  implicitly  followed.  The 
general  election  returned  jNIr.  Gladstone  to 
power  at  the  head  of  a  large  majority.  The 
Home  Rule  ])arty  in  the  House  was  largely 
reinforced,  chiefly  bv  men  returned  under  the 
influence  of  jNIr.  Parnell.  who  was  now  definitely 
elected  as  the  leadei*  of  the  Irish  parliamentary 
party . 

Mr.  Shaw  and  a  few  friends  separated  them- 
selves from  ]\Ir.  Parnell' s  party  and  sat  on  the 
Ministerial  side  of  the  House,   while  Mr.  Par- 


HOME  RULE  — THE  LAND  LEAGUE.     U9 

nell  and  his  followers  sat  with  the  Opposition. 
Tiie  Irish  [)arty  had  great  hopes  from  Mr. 
Gladstone's  government,  on  account  of  the 
strong  Radical  element  in  its  constitution,  and 
because  it  expressed  the  intention  of  dispensing 
with  exceptional  legislation.  The  government, 
on  its  part,  undoii1)tedly  expected  cordial  allies 
in  the  memliers  of  the  advanced  Irish  party. 
Both  sides  were  disappointed.  Truly  says  Mr. 
Sullivan,  "When  one  looks  back  on  the  warm 
sympathies  and  the  bright  hopes  of  that  hour, 
tlie  realities  of  the  situation  in  1882  seem  like 
t'lie  iui})ossi])lc  sorrows  and  disappointments  and 
disasters  of  a  horrid  dream."  It  was,  perha})s, 
impossible  that  it  should  be  otherwiseV~  In  the 
ext'itement  of  a  great  general  election,  the 
sympathies  ])etween  the  English  Liberals  and 
tile  Irisli  j)eo})le  were,  perhaps,  unconsciously 
exaggerated  ;  and  pledges  were,  if  not  made, 
suggested,  !)\'  men  striving  to  overthrow  the 
Tory  government,  which  were  not  found  easy 
to  iinmedititely  satisfy  when  they  became,  hi 
tlieir  turn,  the  meml)ers  and  supporters  of  a 
government.  Tiie  Irish  party,  on  the  other 
hand,  found  that  the  hopes  that  they  had 
entertained  of  speedy  settlement  of  some  of 
the  most  pressing  Irish  grievances  were  not  to 
be  realized  as  rapidly  as  they  had  expected. 
There  was  thus  a  coolness  between  the  govern- 
ment and  the  new  Irish  party  as  soon  as  the 
new  Parliament  began,  and  this  coolness  grad- 
ually deei)ened  into  distinct  hostility. 

There  was  soon  an  open  breach.  The  WTetched 
condition  of  the  Irish  tenants,  and  the  terrible 
number  of  evictions,  led  the  Irish  paity  to 
bring  forward  a  bill  for  the  purpose  of  staying 
evictions.     The  government,  which  up  to  that 


150      A  SHOUT  HIS  TOBY  OP  IB  EL  AND. 

time  had  not  seen  its  way  to  take  any  action, 
then  adopted  some  Irish  suggestions  in  its  Com- 
pensation for  Disturbance  Bill,  which  proposed 
to  extend  for  a  very  few  months  a  portion  of 
the  Ulster  tenant-right  custom,  which  gives  a 
dispossessed  tenant  compensation  for  improve- 
ments he  may  have  made.  It  was  rejected 
by  the  House  of  Lords,  and  the  government 
refused  to  take  any  steps  to  force  the  Lords  to 
accept  it.  But  it  promised  to  bring  in  a  com- 
prehensive measure  the  next  session,  and  it 
appointed  a  commission  to  inquire  into  the  con- 
dition of  the  agricultural  population  of  Ire- 
land, on  which  commission  they  absolutely  re- 
fused to  give  any  place  to  any  representative 
of  the  tenant-farmers'  cause.  The  agitation 
out  of  doors  increased.  The  Land  League 
advised  the  people  to  co-operate  for  their  own 
interests,  and  to  form  a  sort  of  trade-union  of 
the  tenant  class,  and  to  stand  by  each  other  in 
passively  resisting,  not  merely  evictions,  but 
exactions  of  what  they  considered  an  unjust 
amount  of  rent  above  the  rate  of  Griffith's 
valuation. 

Griffith's  valuation  was  undoubtedly  a  very 
rough-and-tumble  way  of  estimating  the  value 
of  land,  but,  at  least,  it  was  very  much  more 
reasonable  to  go  by  than  the  rates  of  the  rack- 
rents.  All  rents,  therefore,  above  Griffith's 
valuation  were  condemned  by  the  Land  League, 
and  a  practical  strike  was  organized  against  the 
landlords  extoi-tins:  them.  The  strike  was 
supported  by  a  form  of  action,  or  rather 
inaction,  which  soon  became  historical.  Boy- 
cotting, so  called  from  the  name  of  its  first 
victim,  meant  the  social  exconmiunication  of 
any  rack-renting  or  evicting  landlord,  any  op- 


ItOME  ttVLE.—TUE  LA2sl)  LEAaVE.    151 

pressive  agent,  any  land-grabber.  No  one  who 
held  the  cause  of  the  League  dear  was  to  work 
for,  buy  from,  sell  to,  or  hold  any  communica- 
tion with  the  obnoxious  persons.  The  process 
was  strictly  legal  ;  nothing  was  to  be  done  to 
the  offender ;  nothing  was  to  be  done  for  him. 
So  long  as  the  League  and  its  followers  acted 
strictly  within  the  law,  kept  simply  on  the 
defensive,  and  avoided  all  aggression,  its 
position  was  invulneral)le.  The  responsible 
leaders  of  the  Land  League  always  strongly 
condemned  any  other  than  constitutional  agita- 
tion. Mr.  Michael  Davitt  earnestly  and  in- 
cessantly denounced  all  intimidation,  all 
violence.  In  a  speech  on  the  25th  of  January, 
1881,  he  said,  "Our  League  does  not  desire  to 
intimidate  any  one  who  disagrees  with  us. 
While  we  abuse  coercion  we  must  not  be  guilty 
of  coercion."  At  public  meetings  in  the  County 
Kerry,  in  the  same  month,  he  called  upon  his 
hearers  to  "abstain  from  all  acts  of  violence," 
and  to"  adhere  to  the  programme  of  the  League, 
and  repel  every  incentive  to  outrage."  In  a 
speech  at  Tipperary  he  told  his  hearers 
not  to  allow  themselves  "  to  be  forced  into  the 
commission  of  any  crime  or  any  offence  which 
will  bring  a  stain  on  the  national  character." 

Unfortunately  these  counsels  were  not  always 
obeyed.  The  famine  and  the  accompanying 
evictions  had  left  bitter  fruit.  Men  who  had 
been  starving,  who  had  seen  their  families,  their 
friends,  dying  of  hunger,  who  had  been  evicted 
to  rot  on  the  roadside  for  all  that  their  land- 
lord cared — such  men  were  not  in  the  spirit 
for  wise  counsels.  The  proud  patience  which 
the  gods  are  said  to  love  is  not  always  easy  to 
assume,  at  least  for  ignorant  peasants,  starving, 


152     A  SHORT  HISTOR  Y  OF  IRELAND. 

homeless,  smarting  under  a  burning  sense  of 
wrong  and  a  wild,  helpless  desire  for  revenge. 
There  were  many  outrages  in  different  parts  of 
the  country,  as  there  had  been  after  every  Irish 
famine  ;  men  were  killed  here  and  there  ;  cattle, 
too,  were  killed  and  mutilated.  These  out- 
rages were  made  the  most  of  in  England. 
Scattered  murders  were  spoken  of  as  part  of  a 
widely  planned  organization  of  massacre.  People 
w  ere  eloquent  in  their  sympathy  for  the  suffer- 
ings of  cattle  and  horses  in  Ireland  who  never 
were  known  to  feel  one  throb  of  pity  at  the 
fashionable  sin  of  torturing  pigeons  at  Hurling- 
ham.  But  Ireland  was  disturbed,  and  for  the 
disturbance  there  was  what  Mr.  Bright  had 
called  at  an  earlier  period  of  his  career  the 
ever-poisonous  remedy  of  coercion.  Min- 
isterialists argued  that  within  ten  months  the 
mutilation  of  animals  in  Ireland  had  increased 
to  forty-seven,  therefore  the  liberties  of  a 
nation  of  five  millions  should  be  suspended. 
They  forgot  that  in  the  same  ten  months  of  the 
same  year  there  was  a  total  of  3489  convictions 
in  England  for  cruelty  to  animals,  many  cases 
of  which  were  of  the  most  horrible  kind. 

Among  the  Land  League  followers  there 
were  many  Nationalists  and  Fenians,  and  there 
were  many  wild  speeches  made,  for  all  of 
which  the  government  resolved  to  hold  the 
leaders  of  the  movement  responsible.  Mr. 
Parnell,  Mr.  Dillon,  Mr.  Sexton,  and  other 
Members  of  Parliament,  were  prosecuted.  At 
the  trial,  JMr.  Justice  Fitzgerald  declared  that 
the  Land  League  was  an  illegal  body.  The 
government  cannot  then  have  agreed  with 
Judge  Fitzgerald,  or  it  would  scarcely  have 
allowed  the  League  to  increase  in  strength    for 


HOME  RULE.— THE  LAND  LEA O UE.     153 

the  greater  part  of  a  ye'dv  with  impunity.  The 
state  trials  came  on  at  the  close  of  1880.  As 
the  jury  could  not  agree,  Mr.  Parnell  went  back 
to  Parliament  with  greater  power  than  he  ever 
had  before.  When  Parliament  met  in  1881,  it 
was  known  that  Mr.  Gladstone  was  going  to 
bring  in  a  Land  Bill  and  a  Coercion  Bill.  The 
Land  League's  advocacy  of  open  agitation  had 
done  much  to  decrease  the  secret  conspiracy 
and  midnight  outrage  which  Coercion  Bills  have 
always  engendered.  The  government  refused 
any  concession.  They  would  not  even  bring 
in  the  Land  Bill  first,  and  the  Coercion  Bill 
afterwards.  Then  the  Irish  members  broke 
away  from  the  government  altogether,  and 
opposed  the  Coercion  Bill  with  all  the  means 
in  their  power  that  parliamentary  forms  allowed. 
For  many  days  they  successfully  impeded  the 
measure,  and  the  obstruction  was  only  brought 
to  a  close  in  the  end  of  February  by  a  coup  (Tetat, 
when  the  Speaker,  intervening,  declared  that 
the  debate  must  go  no  further.  The  next  day 
Mr.  Michael  Davitt  was  arrested.  The  news 
was  received  with  exultation  in  the  House,  and 
with  indignation  by  the  Irish  members,  who 
strove  to  speak  against  it,  and  thirty-six  were 
expelled  from  the  sitting  in  consequence. 

The  severance  of  the  extreme  Irish  party 
and  the  government  was  now  complete.  Mr. 
Bright,  who  had  often  supported  Ireland  before, 
and  was  looked  upon  as  a  true  friend  by  the 
Irish  people,  was  now  one  of  the  bitterest  op- 
ponents of  the  whole  national  movement  and  of 
its  parliamentary  leaders.  The  Irish  national 
press  was  fiercely  exasperated  to  find  Mr.  Bright 
voting  for  coercion  for  Ireland.  He  had,  in- 
deed, voted  for  coercion  before  in  his  younger 


154      A  SHOET  HISTOR  Y  OF  IRELAND. 

days,  but  he  had  always  ])een  eloquent  against 
it,  and  his  utterances  were  brought  up  against 
him  by  the  Irish  papers.  They  reminded  him 
that  in  186(5  he  had  descriljcd  coercion  for  Ire- 
land as  an  "  ever-failing  and  ever-poisonous 
remedy,"  and  they  asked  him  why  he  recom- 
mended the  unsuccessful  and  vencmious  legfisla- 
tion  now.  They  pointed  to  his  speech  of 
1849,  in  which  he  said,  "The  treatment  of  this 
Irish  malady  remains  ever  the  same.  We  have 
nothing  for  it  still  but  force  and  alms."  They 
quoted  from  his  s})eech  of  1847:  "I  am 
thoroughly  convinced  that  everything  the 
government  or  Parliament  can  do  for  Ireland 
will  be  unavailing  unless  the  foundation  of  the 
work  be  laid  deep  and  well,  by  clearing  away 
the  fetters  under  Avhich  land  is  now  held,  so 
that  it  may  become  the  possession  of  real 
owners,  and  be  made  instrumental  to  the  em- 
])loyment  and  sustentation  of  the  people. 
Honorable  gentlemen  opposite  may  fancy  them- 
selves interested  in  maintaininir  the  present 
system  ;  but  there  is  surely  no  interest  they  can 
have  in  it  which  will  weigh  against  the  safety 
and  prosperity  of  Ireland."  Such  a  pas- 
sage as  this  might  have  served,  it  was 
urged,  as  a  motto  for  the  Land  League  itself. 
What  other  doctrine  did  the  Land  League  up- 
hold but  that  land  should  become  the  possession 
of  real  owners,  and  be  made  instrumental  to  the 
emj)loyment  and  sustentation  of  the  i)eople? 
Might  not  the  Land  League  have  fairly  asked 
the  government  what  interest  it  could  have  in 
the  present  system  of  land  which  would  weigh 
against  the  safety  and  prosperity  of  Ireland? 
Had  he  not  told  tliem,  too,  in  1866,  that  "  The 
great  evil  of  Ireland  is  this  :  that  the  Irish  peo- 


HOME  R  VLB.-THE  LAND  LEA  O  UE.    155 

pie — the  Irish  nation — are  dispossessed  of  the 
soil ;  and  what  we  ought  to  do  is  to  provide  for 
and  aid  in  their  restoration  to  it  by  all  measures 
of  justice  ?  "  He  disliked  the  action  of  the  Irish 
meml)ers  now,  because  they  were  acting  against 
the  Liberal  party  ;  but  had  he  not  said  in  18()() 
also,  "  If  Irishmen  were  united,  if  you  one  hun- 
dred and  five  members  were  for  the  most  part 
agreed,  you  might  do  almost  anything  that  you 
liked  ;  "  and  further  said,  "  If  there  were  one 
hundred  more  members,  the  representatives  of 
large  and  free  constituencies,  then  your  cry 
would  be  heard,  and  the  people  would  give  you 
that  justice  which  a  class  has  so  long  denied 
you?"  "Exactly,"  replied  his  Irish  critics. 
"  We  have  now  a  united  body  of  Irishmen,  the 
largest  and  most  united  the  House  has  ever  seen, 
and  you  do  not  seem  to  look  kindly  upon  it. 
You  do  not  seem  to  be  acting  up  to  your  prom- 
ise made  in  Dublin  in  1866 — '  If  I  have  in  past 
times  felt  an  unquenchable  sympathy  with  the 
sufferings  of  your  people,  you  may  rely  upon  it 
that  if  there  be  an  Irish  member  to  si)eak  for 
Ireland,  he  will  find  me  heartily  by  his  side.'  " 
At  the  same  speech  in  Dublin,  Mr.  Bright  said, 
"If  I  could  be  in  all  other  things  the  same,  but 
in  birth  an  Irishman,  there  is  not  a  town  in  this 
island  I  would  not  visit  for  the  purpose  of  dis- 
cussing the  great  Irish  question,  and  of  rousing 
my  countrymen  to  some  great  and  united  action." 
"  This  is  exactly  what  we  are  doing,"  said  his 
Land  League  critics  ;  "  why  do  you  denounce  us 
now  ?  Why  do  you  vote  for  Coercion  Acts  to 
prevent  the  discussion  of  the  great  Irish  ques- 
tion?" 

But  all   such  recriminations  were  vain  and 
valueless.     Mr.  Bright  had  changed  his  opin- 


ions,  and  there  was  no  more  use  in  remindinii 
him  that  he  had  once  encouraged  Irish  agitation 
than  in  taunting  Mr.  Gladstone  with  having 
been  once  a  meml)er  of  the  Tory  i)arty.  That 
Mr.  Bright  was  no  longer  a  friend  to  the  lead- 
ers of  Irish  public  opinion,  that  he  was  no 
longer  at  the  side  of  those  who  undoubtedly 
represented  the  feeling  of  the  nation,  was  a 
matter  indeed  for  regret.  A  friend  the  less, 
an  enemy  the  more,  is  always  to  be  regretted. 
But  they  had  to  go  on  and  do  the  best  they 
could  without  him  ;  they  could  not  turn  from 
the  course  of  their  duty,  even  because  a  great 
speaker  and  a  great  statesman  did  not  think  and 
act  in  his  old  age  as  he  had  thought  and  acted 
when  he  was  youiiger. 

After  the  Coercion  Act  was  passed,  one  or 
two  men  were  arrested,  and  then  tlie  govern- 
i^ent  arrested  Mr.  John  Dillon,  ]\Ir.  John 
Dillon  was  one  of  the  most  extreme  of  the  Irish 
members.  His  father  was  Mr.  John  B^  Dillon, 
the  rebel  of  1848,  and  one  of  the  founders  of 
the  J^otion  newspaper.  AMien  the  rebellion  was 
crushed,  John  Dillon  escaped  to  France,  and  re- 
turned to  Eniihind  vears  later,  mider  the  aeneraf 
amnesty,  and  was  elected  for  the  County  Ti})- 
perary.  He  earned  honorable  distinction  in  the 
House  of  Commons  by  his  effort's  to  bring  about 
an  alliance  between  the  Irish  i)arty  and  the  Eng- 
lish Kadicals,  and  some  of  Mr.  John  Bright's 
speeches  contain  the  warmest  tril)utes  to  his 
honor  and  his  ability.  Mr.  John  Dillon,  the 
son,  was  a  man  of  much  more  extreme  opinions. 
He  was  imbued  witli  tie  intense  detestation  of 
English  rule  Avhicli  Eiigiish  politicians  tind  it 
difficult  to  understand,  ;iikI  he  never  seemed  to 
have  much  sympathy  whh  or  ))elief  in^parlia- 


MOME  It  VLE.—TBB  LAND  LHA 0  VE.    167 

mentary  agitation.  Some  months  after  his  im- 
prisonment Mr.  Dillon  was  released,  on  account 
of  ill-health.  The  Coercion  Bill  proved  a  hope- 
less failure.  The  government  did  its  best  by 
imprisoning  members  of  the  Land  League,  lo- 
cal leaders,  priests,  and  others,  in  all  direc- 
tions, to  give  the  country  over  again  into  the 
hands  of  Ribbonmen  and  other  conspirators, 
and  take  it  out  of  the  hands  of  the  constitu- 
tional agitators.  The  Land  Bill  was  passed, 
and  proved  to  l^e  utterly  inadequate  to  the  pur- 
pose it  was  intended  to  serve. 

With  the  conclusion  of  Parliament  a  Land 
Leaofue  Convention  was  summoned  in  the  Ro- 
tunda,  Dublin,  in  the  early  days  of  September, 
1881.  The  convention  represented  the  public 
feeling  of  Ireland,  as  far  as  public  opinion  ever 
can  be  represented  bv'  a  delegated  body.  The 
descendants  of  the  Cromwellian  settlers  of  the 
nortli  sat  side  by  side  with  men  of  the  rebel 
blood  of  Tipperary,  with  the  impetuous  people 
of  the  south,  with  the  strong  men  of  the  mid- 
land hunting  counties.  The  most  remarkable 
feature  of  the  meeting  was  the  vast  number  of 
pries'ts  who  were  present. 

The  attitude  of  the  Catholic  clergy  of  Ireland 
towards  the  League  was  very  remarkable.  It 
was  said  at  first,  by  those  who  did  not  under- 
stand the  Irish  clergy,  that  the  Church  and  the 
League  would  never  form  an  alliance.  The 
Land  League  soon  began  to  gain  powerful  sup- 
porters among  the  Irish  ecclesiastics.  Arch- 
bishop McCabe  had  attacked  it  early  in  the 
movement.  His  attack  had  raised  up  a  power- 
ful champion  of  the  Land  League  in  Archbishop 
Croke,  of  Cashel.  The  Nationalists  welcomed 
Archl>iHhop  Croke  as  their  religious  leader,  and 


158       A  SIIO  n  T  mSTOn  Y  op  mELAND. 

he  travelled  through  Ireland  in  a  sort  of  tri- 
umph, receiving  from  the  peasantry  everywhere 
the  most  enthusiastic  reception.  The  priests  in 
general  began  to  accept  the  Land  League  pro- 
grannne  enthusiastically.  The  priesthood  have 
always  been  the  warmest  sup})orters  of  any 
movement  that  has  really  ap})eared  to  promise 
to  do  good  to  the  Irish  people.  Clerical  sym- 
i)athv  with  the  Land  League  was  in  itself  a 
proof  of  its  law-abiding  and  constitutional 
principles,  which  ought  to  have  counted  for 
much  with  the  government.  But  the  govern- 
ment appeared  to  be  obstinately  shut  against 
all  impressions.  Instead  of  being  impressed 
by  the  significance  of  the  ecclesiastical  support 
of  the  Lciigue,  the  o-()veinment  seemed  deter- 
mined to  force  the  i)riests  and  the  Leaguers  into 
closer  s^inpathy  by  arresting,  on  the  20th  of 
May,  a  Catholic  priest,  Father  Eugene  Sheehy, 
of  Kilmallock.  A  great  number  of  priests 
spoke  at  the  Convention,  young  and  old  ;  all 
were  in  warm  sympathy  with  the  League  and 
its  leaders.  The  meeting  was  singularly  quiet ; 
the  speeches  were  moderate  in  the  extreme  ; 
but  the  country  was  in  a  terribly  disordered 
state,  and  even  the  strong  force  of  coercion 
struiTJi'led  in  vain  against  the  general  disorgan- 
ization. 

At  this  crisis  the  government,  for  some  rea- 
son or  other,  liberated  Father  Sheehy,  who  at 
once  commenced  a  vigorous  crusade  against  the 
ministry,  and  his  entry  into  Cork,  in  company 
with  Mr.  Parnell,  resembled  a  Roman  triumph. 
The  government  was  now  determined  to  make 
a  bold  stroke.  Mr.  Gladstone  made  a  bitter 
attack  on  Mr.  Parnell,  to  which  Mr.  Parnell 
fiercely  re})lied,  an  1  a  few  days  after  a  descent 


HOME  B  VLB.  -  THE  LAND  LEA  G  UE.     1 59 

was  made  upon  the  leaders  of  the  Land  Loacue. 
Mr.  Parnell,  Mr.  Sexton,  Mr.  Dillon,  and  the 
chief  officers  of  the  League  were  arrested,  and 
conveyed  to  Kilmainham  prison.  Mr.  Egan, 
who  was  in  Paris,  and  some  others,  escaped  ar- 
rest. An  address  was  at  once  issued  to  the 
Irish  tenants,  signed  by  the  imprisoned  Land 
Leaguers,  and  calling  upon  them  to  pay  no  rent 
until  their  leaders  were  liberated.  The  irovern- 
raent  immediately  declared  the  Land  League  il- 
legal, and  suppressed  its  branches  throughout 
the  country.  The  result  was  a  great  iiicrease  in 
the  outrages,  and  the  country  became jpore  dis- 
turbed than  ever.  The  men  who  cohld  have 
kept  it  quiet,  who  had  restrained  the  popular 
feeling,  were  in  prison,  and  the  secret]  societies 
had  it  all  their  own  way.  This  perrodwas  dis- 
graced by  several  nmrders — the  murder  of  two 
bailiffs,  the  Iluddys,  in  Connemara ;  the  mur- 
der of  an  informer  in  Dublin  ;  of  Mrs.  Smythe, 
and  ]Mr.  Herbert. 

After  a  while  Mr.  Sexton  was  liberated  on 
account  of  ill-healtli ,  and  the  imprisonment  of  the 
the  other  Land  League  leaders  was  evidently  a 
great  embarrassment  to  the  government.  Private 
overtures  of  freedom  were  made  to  them,  if 
they  would  consent  to  leave  the  country  for  a 
time — at  least,  of  freedom,  if  they  would  con- 
sent to  cross  the  Channel  to  the  Continent,  even 
though  they  came  back  the  next  day.  But  the 
prisoners  refused  any  such  compromise.  They 
considered  that  they  had  been  unfairly  impris- 
oned, and  they  would  accept  no  conditions. 
Meanwhile  the  affairs  of  the  country  were  going 
from  bad  to  worse.  The  government  was  unable 
to  cope  with  the  disaffection,  and  the  Land  Act 
was  unavailing  to  meet  the  misery  of  the  peo- 


160       A  SHOUT  HJSTOR  Y  OF  IRELAND. 

pie.  What  Mr.  Parnell  has  always  predicted 
has  come  to  [)ass .  The  Land  Courts  were  over- 
crowded with  Avork  :  there  were  thousands  of 
cises  in  hand,  which  it  would  take  years  to  dis- 
pose of,  and  in  tlie  meantime  the  people  were 
suffering  terribly,  and  the  landlords  were  taking 
every  advantage  of  the  delay.  To  meet  the 
difficulty,  Mr.  l^irnell  sent  out  from  his  prison 
the  draft  of  an  Arrears  Bill,  to  relieve  the  ten- 
ant from  the  prer^sure  of  past  rent,  and  this 
measure  was  [)ractically  accepted  by  the  gov- 
ernment, who  })r()mised,  if  the  Irish  party  with- 
drew their  measure,  to  bring  in  a  ministerial 
bill  to  the  same  effect.  Fresh  surprises  were  in 
store.  Kumors  of  a  change  of  policy  on  the 
part  of  the  government  were  suddenly  confiimed 
by  the  liberalion  of  Mr.  Parnell,  Mr.  Dillon, 
Mr.  O'Kelly,  and  many  other  of  the  Land 
League  prisoners,  and,  more  surprising  still, 
by  the  release  of  Mr.  ^Michael  Davitt. 

Ever  since  the  su})pression  of  the  Land 
League  the  fiercer  s})irit  of  the  secret  societies 
had  been  abroad  in  Ireland.  The  Land  Leaoue 
and  its  constitutional  agitation  had  always  been 
disliked  bv  the  men  who  formed  them,  and  the 
ministerial  concessions  pointed  at  a  reconcile- 
ment which  they  detested. 

The  ministry  seemed  reall}'  to  have  aw^akened 
to  the  gravity  of  the  situation,  and  to  have  sud- 
denly accej)ted  Fox's  theory  of  the  necessity  of 
governino-  Ireland  according  to  Irish  ideas.  Mr. 
Forster,  the  most  uncompromising  opponent  of 
such  a  theorv,  lesioned,  and  Lord  Frederick 
Cavendish,  a  younger  son  of  the  Duke  of  Dev- 
onshire, was  a})pointed  Chief  Secretary  for  Ire- 
land in  his  place.  Tlien  came  theterril)le  trag- 
edy which  shattered  the  fair  fortune  that  seemed 


HOME  RULE.— THE  LAND  LEAGUE.     IGl 

to  have  come  at  last  to  Ireland.  On  Saturday 
the  6th  of  May,  1882,  Lord  Frederick  Caven- 
dish  landed  in  Du])lin  ;  that  same  eyeninj^  he 
and  Mr.  Burke,  one  of  the  Castle  officials,  were 
murdered  in  the  Phoenix  Park  in  the  clear  sum- 
mer twilight,  by  assassins  %yho  escaped  at  the 
time.  Irishmen  should  always  remem])er  that 
at  a  time  when  England  and  all  the  world  were 
thrilled  with  horror  at  the  murder,  at  a  time 
when  the  passions  of  men  might  well  l)e  stirred 
to  their  worst,  the  tone  of  English  o[)inion  and 
of  the  English  Press,  with  rare  exceptions,  was 
just  and  temperate.  The  Irish  leaders,  Mr. 
Parnell,  Mr.  Dayitt,  and  Mr.  Dillon,  issued  a 
manifesto  to  the  Irish  people,  expressing  in 
their  own  heart-stricken  grief  the  sorrow  and 
the  shame  of  the  party  and  the  peo})le  they  re- 
presented. The  document  concluded,  "AVo 
feel  that  no  act  has  been  perpetrated  in  our 
country  during  the  exciting  struggles  for  social 
and  political  rights  of  the  past  fifty  years  that 
has  so  stained  the  name  of  hospitable  Ireland 
as  this  cowardly  and  unproyoked  assassination 
of  a  friendly  stranger,  and  that  until  the  mur- 
derers of  Lord  Frederick  Cavendish  and  Mr. 
Burke  are  brought  to  justice,  that  stain  will 
sully  our  country's  name."  At  meetings  all 
over  the  country  the  crime  was  no  less  bitterly 
denounced,  and  the  Corporation  of  Dublin 
passed  a  resolution  declaring  that  until  the  per- 
petrators of  the  crime  were  brought  to  justice 
all  Irishmen  must  feel  dishonored. 

The  government  at  once  brought  in  a  Crimes 
Bill,  one  of  the  most  stringent  ever  passed 
against  Ireland.  It  then  brought  in,  and  car- 
ried, after  strong  opposition  in  the  House  of 
Lords,  its  Arrears  Bill,  a  measure  to  enable  the 


162      A  SHOUT  HIS  TOBY  OF  IRELAND. 

tenant  farmers  of  Ireland,  under  certain  condi- 
tions, to  wipe  out  the  arrears  of  rent  which  had 
accumulated  upon  them. 

In  the  August  of  1882  a  National  Exhibition 
of  Irish  manufactures  was  opened  in  Dublin,  the 
lirst  enterprise  of  the  kind  ever  conducted  by 
the  national  party,  in  complete  independence 
from  Castle  patronage  ;  it  was  a  great  success. 
On  the  day  that  the  exhibition  was  opened,  a 
statue  of  O'Connell  was  unveiled  in  Sackville 
Street,  opposite  the  O'Connell  Bridge,  and  a 
vast  procession  of  all  the  guilds  and  associa- 
tions of  Dublin  was  organized  in  its  honor. 
There  was  a  conviction  in  England,  and  in  the 
minds  of  the  Castle  authorities,  that  such  an 
event  could  not  pass  off  without  some  desper- 
ate scenes  of  disorder,  if  not  of  insurrection. 
But  the  peace  and  order  of  Ireland's  capital  city 
was  not  disturbed,  and  the  spectacle  of  the  vast 
procession,  many  miles  in  length,  of  the  stately 
statue  that  had  l^een  raised  to  a  national  hero, 
of  the  beautiful  building  richly  stored  with  the 
work  of  Irish  hands  and  the  creations  of  Irish 
intellect,  all  accomplished  entirely  by  the  Irish 
people  themselves,  under  the  guidance  of  their 
national  leaders,  without  foreign  aid  or  counte- 
nance, afforded  one  of  the  strongest  arguments 
in  favor  of  Home  Rule  ever  advanced  in  Ireland. 
A  people  who  could  carry  out  so  successfully, 
with  such  perfect  peace  and  order,  so  difficult  an 
enterprise,  might  be  admitted,  even  by  the  most 
prejudiced,  to  have  within  them  all  the  capacity 
for  successful  self-government. 

On  the  day  following  the  O'Connell  Centen- 
nial,  the  freedom  of  the  City  of  Dublin  was  con- 
ferred on  Mr.  Parnell  and  Mr.  Dillon.  The 
same  day  another  popular  Irish  member,  Mr.  E, 


HOME  E  ULE.-THE  LAND  LEAO UE.     163 

D.  Gray,  M.  P.,  was  committed  to  Richmond 
prison,  O'Connell's  old  prison,  on  a  charge  of 
contempt  of  court,  which  was  the  cause  of  a  par- 
liamentary inquiry  into  the  exercise  of  that  curi- 
ous judicial  privilege.  Mr.  Gray  was  the  owner 
of  the  Freem.a)i'^  Journal,  and  at  the  time  was 
Hijrh  Sheriff  of  Dublin.  He  had  written  in  his 
paper  some  censures  on  the  conduct  of  a  jury 
whose  verdict  had  sentenced  a  man  to  death. 
The  judge  before  whom  the  case  had  been  tried, 
Mr.  justice  Lawson,  immediately  sent  Mr.  Gray 
to  prison  for  three  months  for  contempt  of 
court,  and  fined  him  £500.  After  two  months' 
im[)risonment  Mr,  Gray  was  released  ;  the  fine 
was  i)aid  by  sul)scription  in  a  few  days.  When 
Parliament  met  in  a  winter  session,  the  case  was 
brought  forward  as  one  of  privilege,  and  sub- 
mitted to  a  select  committee. 

At  one  time  during  the  autumn  of  1882,  the 
Irish  executive  seemed  likely  to  be  much  em- 
barrassed bv  a  strike  among  the  Irish  Constab- 
ulary,  a  body  of  men  on  whom  the  executive 
naturally  were  forced  to  depend  greatly.  Some 
hundreds  of  police  struck ;  there  were  some 
fierce  disturbances  in  Dublin ;  at  one  time  it 
seemed  as  if  the  police  in  every  town  in  Ireland 
were  discontented  and  prepared  to  combine 
against  the  government ;  but  the  government 
made  some  concessions,  and  what  at  one  time 
seemed  a  very  serious  danger  faded  asray  into 
nothingness. 

In  October  another  National  Convention  was 
held  in  Dublin,  and  a  new  and  vast  organization 
formed,  embracing  in  one  all  the  Irish  demands 
for  Home  Rule  and  for  Land  Reform.  With 
its  inauguration  begins  a  new  chapter  in  Irish 
history. 

THE   END. 


THE    WEEK 


THE  IRISH  AKD  THE  MINISTRY. 

^  II  l^xpcctation  that   the   Former  AVill 
\;;aiu  At\opt  the  Obstructive  Policy 
iM-lecleil  by  I'arncll. 


London,  September  "5. 
It  is  now  not,  improbable  that  ttio  Irish 
^ationali8ta  intend  to  resume,  as  far  as  pos- 
j^iblo,  the  parliamentary  tactics  which  bruuijht 
the  homn-rulo  movement  to  the  front  bet\\ecn 
■JS7-1  and  lfcb4.  In  two  or  three  respects  tho 
prct-ont  position  of  the  Irish  parliamentary 
paitiee  is  nut  ui;liko  lii^;  ponition  between  lfc76 
end  18^0,  between  tho  time  when  the  Kation- 
jilists  vrcro  numerous  enough  4o  make  them- 
lolves  disagreeably  felt  in  tho  House  ot  Com- 
Mons  and  the  timo  when  they  liad  become  or- 
f:anizcd  under  the  leadership  of  Parnell. 
Lutt'B  position  in  the  closing  3?ear3  of  his 
leadership  of  tho  new  home-rulo  movement 
was  in  some  respects  similar  to  that  of  Jtlr. 
Juetin  McCarthy  at  the  preesnt  tiir.c.  lur. 
!£i:sTiSvV,i-  ijealy  in  to  Mr.  McCarthy  mucli 
what  Parneli  was  to  Butt  between  1875  and 
1879,  and  althougb  the  caBe  of  the  Manchester 
martyrs  of  1867,  which  was  so  prominent  in 
the  early  years  of  the  home-rulo  movement, 
is  now  only  recalled  at  the  anniversary  of 
their  execution,  their  piece  ks  a  subject  of 
pairliamentary  controversy  ie  taken  by  the  dy- 
namite convicts,  in  whom  all  eecticns  of  the 
Irish  party  of  the  present  day  evince  a  lively 
and  competing  interest. 

Parnell  had  entered  the  House  of  Commons 
in  1875,  when  the  movement,  started  and  then 
led  by  Butt,  was  four  or  live  years  old.  In 
1877,  however,  Butt's  parliamentary  leader- 
ship was  a  leadership  only  in  name.  There 
was  no  unity  in  the  party:  the  leader  counted 
for  little ;  and  no  one  paid  less  regard  to  Butt 
than  did  Parnell,  who  was  working  to  a  plan 
of  his  own,  and  with  Biggar,  O'Donnell,  and 
O'Oonor  Power  was  using  obstruction  to 
show  the  Conservative  government  and  the 
House  of  Commons  that,  if  they  were  not 
diBposed  to  do  what  the  Nationalists  demand- 
ed, they  should  do  nothing  else.  Parliamen- 
tary obstruction  by  the  Nationalists  had  been 
begun  befor©  Parnell  appeared.  Biggai  and 
other  of  the  Irish  members  had  introduced  it; 
but  it  was  not  until  Parnell  came  to  the  front 
that  obstruction  was  perfected  aa  a  par- 
liamentary plan  of  campaign,  and  pushed 
as  far  as  the  then  existing  rules 
of  procedure  in  the  House  of 
Commons  would  permit.  Three  years  before 
Parnell  became  the  parliamentary  chairman 
of  the  Irish  party,  he  and  his  little  group  of 
Eupporters,  to  the  dismay  of  Butt,  had  begun 
to  tost  the  patience  of  the  House  to  its  ex- 
tremest  limit.  In  1887  they  brought  their  me- 
thoda  into  play  on  the  prisons  bill,  on  the 
vote  for  the  army  reserve, and  later  on  a  South 
African  bill.  They  discussed  to  a  wearisome 
length  all  the  clauses  of  the  prisons  bill,  and 
made  numerous  motions  for  adjournment 
solely  with  the  intention  of  trooping  mem- 
bers through  the  division  lobbies  and  wasting 
the  time  of  the  House.  On  the  army  reserve 
Tote  they  kept  the  House  of  Commons  sitting 
from  four  o'clock  one  afternoon  until  seven 
o'clock  next  morning.  This  was  the  first  of 
the  all-night  sittings  which  the  Nationalists 
wantonly  imposed  on  the  House.  It  was  soon 
"followed  by  others  "of  longer~aur5Tion,  tm'd  oc- 
casionally by  sittings  which  were  made  to  ex- 
tend into  Sunday.  In  1878  Parnell  had  often 
twelve  or  fourteen  notices  of  inbtions  on  the 
order  papers  of  a  single  day,  every  one  of 
them  obviously  placed  there  only  with  a  view 
to  obstruction.  lie  and  his  associates  talked 
against  time  on  numberless  occasions,  and 
Biggar's  ingenuity  hit  on  the  plan  of  reading 
to  the  House  from  an  old  blue  book  for  long 
stretches  at  a  time.    * 

This  was  during  the  leadership  of  Butt  and 
later  on  of  Shaw.  When  Parnell  became  lead- 
er  of  the  party  in  1880,and  had  a  following  of 
more  than  sixty  members,  for  two  sessions  at 
least,  obstruction  was    practised    with  greater 
persistency  and  with  greater  success  from  the 
Nationalist  point  of  view.     The  Liberals  were 
now  In  office  and  were  worse  treated  than  the 
Tories  had    been    in  the  1874-80    Parliament. 
On   the     coercion    bill    which    followed    the 
change  of   administration,  there  was  one  de- 
bate   which    was    spun    out    for   twenty-two 
hours  without  a  break,  and  at  another  sitting, 
when  the  same  measure  was  before  tho  House, 
the  sitting  was    made    to   extend    from    four 
o'clock  oik  a    Monday    afternoon    until    nine' 
o'clock  on    Wednesday  morning,  and    no  real 
progress    was    made    with     the  bill   until  tho 
chair    refused  to  hear  any  more  speeches,  and 
the  obstructionists  withdrew. 

Since  then,  however,  the  rules  of  procedure 
have  been  amended  on  two  occasions,  in  1882 
and  again  in    1887;   and    since    1883  the  Na- 
tionalists have  seldom  come  into  conflict  with 
the    House.     Individual    members,     such    as 
Dr.  Tanner,  have  been  suspended  occasionally 
for   conduct   disrespectful    to.  the  House,  but 
since  the  new  rules  there    has  been  no  organ- 
ized and  systematic  obstruction  from  the  Irish 
party  as  a  whole.     The  reasons   for  the  cessa- 
tion are  easy  to  explain.  A f ten  the  troubles  of 
1882,  when  the  most  drastic  changes  were  made 
in  the   rules,  the   principal    business  of    the 
House  of    Commons  was  the    franchise  act  of 
1884,  which  so  enormously  increased  Parnell's 
political  power  in  Ireland.   It  would  have  been 
bad    policy    to  obstruct    this  measure.      The 
franchi-'-  uct  ^as  soon  fallowed  by  Mr.  Glad- 
etone's  conversion  to  home  rule,  and  with  that 
convtrsion  came  the  Liberal  and    Nationalist 
Biiiance,  which  iuaieu    iroiu  1685  tiiiougu  the 
Gladstone     administration    of     1885-86,    the 
Unionist   administration    of  1886-92,  and  the 
late  Liberal  administrations.     For  about  four 
of  these  years  the  Liberals  were  in  oflBce  with 
the  Nationalists  as  their  close  allies.     During 
the  remaining  six  years,  although  the  Union- 
ists were  in  office, the  Nationalists  were  great- 
ly restrained  by  their  close    connection    with 
the  Liberals,  and    by  the  expectation  that  the 
Liberals  would  be  returned  tooflSce.and  would 
follow  up  tho  rejected    bill  of    1886  with  a  se- 
cond   home-rule    measure.     Thus    for  twelve 
years  it  has  been  to  the  advantage  of  the  Na- 
tionalists to  allow  their  old  policy  of  obstruc- 
tion to  remain  in  abeyance. 

The    extent  to  which    the    old    obstructive 
policy  will  be  revived  will  depend  largely  upon 
the  contlpuance    or  severance   of  the  alliance 
between  the    Liberals    and  the    Nationalists. 
If  it  comes    to    an  end,  the  Nationalists    will 
be  much  freer    to    resume  the   parliamentary 
tao+ios  of  the    enrly  period    of  the    home  rule 
movement.      If    it    continues,  such    a    policy 
cannot  well  bo  jjdoptod;  for  the  Liberals, now 
in  cppopitiuu,  are    not  likely  to    compromiso 
thenihOlves  by  joining    in  a  course  of  conduct 
like    that  which,  from     1877    to    1882,  iilmost 
drove  the  House   of  Commons  to  desperation. 
Present  gain  would    result    to  both  parties  if 
there  was  an  easing    olf  from  the  existing  ro- 
lationships,  and    it    may  be  taken    as  settled 
that  there  will    not  be  continued    during  this 
Parliament  anytljing     like    the  intimate  rela- 
tionships which    existed  during  the  last  Par- 
liament, in  which    the    Liberals   and  the  Na-  i 
tlonnlibts    formed    the    opposition.      Durintj  j 
those  :.enrd  tho    Liberal  whips  were  really  the 
whips  of  the  Nationnlist  party ;  and  there  waa 
scarcely  a  Liberal  political  meeting  in  the  con- 
btituencits  at  wliicli  Irish    meinbers  were  not 


the  principal  speakers,  while,  nt  the  by-clcc- 
tione^jtbe  Iristi  members  were  more  numerous 
and  more  active  in  behalf  of  the  Liberal  can- 
didate than  tho  members  of  his  own  I'oiitical 
inity. 

If  there  i.s  this  breaking  away,  and  tho  Na- 
tionalists resort  again  to  their  old  tactics,  it 
will  goon  bo  uemunEtratcd  how  far  the  oppor- 
tunities for  obHtructi«n  are  rectricted  by  tho 
liithcrlo  untried  rules  which  i'nrnell's  con- 
duct forced  tho  House,  in  geif-rrotection,  to 
adopt.  Thoso  rules  give  tlii>  ^-pcaker  larao 
discretionary  powers  in  dialing  ■'.vilh  the  va- 
riety ef  obstructive  tactics  Biggar  and  Par- 
nell introduced  and  perfected.  It  is  left  to 
the  Chuir  to  say  when  a  question  has  been 
adequately  discussed.  The  Speaker  can  also 
call  tho  attention  of  tho  lioueo  to  the  conduct 
of  a  member  who  persists  in  irrelevance,  or 
in  tedious  repetitinn  either  of  his  own  argu- 
ments or  of  tho  arguments  used  by  other  mem- 
bers in  debate,  and  having  doncjio^ma3;L-di?e<iV- 
Jiic^jefesa^iirg- iiTcnicer  to  sit  down.  Rules 
like  these  would  have  saved  the  House  of  Com- 
mons weeks  of  useless  talk  in  tho  years  when 
I'arnell  was  pushing  himself  forward  for  the 
parliamentary    leadership. 

These  powers  are  enjoyed  both  by  the 
Speaker  and  by  the  Chairman  of  Committees, 
and  neither  Mr.  Gully  nor  Mr.  J.  W.  Low- 
ther  is  likely  to  refrain  from  their  use  when 
occasion  demands.  Both  the  Speaker  ana  the 
Chairman  are  now  vested  with  powers  for 
dealing  with  obstructive  motions  for  adjourn- 
ment which  they  did  not  possess  in  the  seven- 
ties. Either  of  them  may,  when  he  is  of  opi- 
nion that  a  motioa  is  an  abuse  of  the  rules  of 
the  House,  and  purely  obstruetive,  decline  to 
put  it  from  the  chair.  Tho  overhauling  of  the 
rules  which  concern  the  daily  meeting  and 
rising  of  the  Houss  made  in  1887  also  renders 
obstruction  less  possible  on  account  of  the 
number  of  occasions  on  which  the  rules  au- 
thorize the  Speaker  to  adjourn  the  House 
without  putting  tho  question.  But  drastic  as 
are  many  of  these  changes,  the  opportunities 
for  obstruction  are  8til^numerous.  It  is  still 
possible  for  questions  almost  without  limit  to 
be  addressed  to  Ministers  when  the  House 
meets  each  day.  It  is  jRiilL  _pc£Bilj]^jjyu 
member  who  can  get  forty  other  members  to 
rise  in  their  places  to  support  him,  to  deprive 
the  House  of  two  or  three  hours'  time  in  the 
early  part  of  the  day's  sitting  by  a  useless 
discussion  on  what  the  member  and  his  sup- 
porters assert  to  be  a  matter  of  urgent  public 
importance.  These  discussions  were  frequent- 
ly raised  by  Irisn  members  during  Mr.  Ar- 
thur Balfour's  tenure  of  the  Irish  office.     The 

plan  then  received  the  sanction  of  the  Libe- 
rals. It  can  bo  adopted  with  greater  fre- 
quency if  the  Liberals  and  the  Nationalists 
should  part  company ;  for  all  three  sections 
of  the  Nationalist  party  would  support  any 
scheme  for  discussing  an  Irish  grievance  real 
or  imaginary.  It  is  still  also  possible  for 
any  member  to  take  up  the  role  so  long  played 
by  Biggar  of  the  objector  to  any  contentious 
business  being  taken  after  twelve  o'clock  at 
night.  The  member  making  the  objection 
may  be  tho  only  person  who  regards  the'busi- 
ness  proposed  to  be  taken  after  that  hour  as 
contentious ;  but  when  once  he  has  lodged 
his  objection,  the  business  must  go  over  to 
another  day. 


odsl 


In 

erpc 

Soui 

Tynl 

ain,[ 

stei 

Cor 


A^^T  'c/i 


THE    WEEK 


TBE  IRISH  AND  THE  MINISTRY. 

>  n  Kxpectation  that  the  Former  Will 
A^ain  Adopt  the  Obstructive  Policy 
<  ilected  by  Parnell. 


London,  September  25. 
It  ia  now  not    improbable    that    tho    Irish 
Kationallsta  intend  to    resume,  as  far  as  pos- 
Hiblo,  tho  parliamentary  tactics  which  brought 
the  homo-rule  movement  to  the  front  between 
1S7-1  and  1884.     In    two  or  three    respects  tho 
present  position  of   the    Irish    parliamentary 
parfjes  is  n^t  mUjJt?  tho  pcHition  between  1876 
and  1880,  between  the   time  when  the  Nation- 
alists were  numerous   enough  .to  make  them- 
f  elves  disagreeably  felt  in  tho  House  of  Com- 
nions  and  ihe  time  when  they  had  become  or- 
ganized   under    the    leadership    of    Parnell. 
Lutt'B  position  in  the    closing    years    of    his 
leadership  of   the  new   home-rule    movement 
was  in    some  respects    similar  to  that  of  Mr. 
Justin  McCarthy  at    the    nrnspi^f   <t,»^      j^,] 
'J:i«w,iV/i-    Beaiy    is  to  Mr.'  McCarthy  '  much 
what  Parnell  was    to    Butt  between  1875   and 
1879,  and  although  the  case  of  the  Manchester 
martyrs  of  1867,  which  was    so    prominent  in 
the  early   years    of  the  home-rule  movement 
is  now    only    recalled  at  the    anniversary    of 
their    execution,  their    place  as   a  subject  of 
parliamentary  controversy  is  taken  by  the  dy- 
namite convicts,  in  whom  all  sections  of   the 
Irish  party  of  the  present  day  evince  a    lively 
and  competing  interest, 

Parnell  had  entered  the  House  of  Commons 
sn  1875,  when  the  movement,  started  and  then 
led  by  Butt,  was  four  or  live    years    old.     In 
1877,  however.  Butt's    parliamentary    le'ader- 
Bhip  was  a  leadership    only    in  name.     There 
was  no  unity  in  the  party :  the  leader  counted 
for  little;  and  no  one  paid  less  regard  to  Butt  j 
than  did  Parnell,  who  was  working  to   a  plan 
of  his  own,  and  with  Biggar,  O'Donnell,  and 
O'Oonor   Power    was    using    obstruction    to 
show  the  Conservative    government    and    the 
House  of  Commons  that,    if    they    were    not 
disposed  to  do  what  the  Nationalists  demand- 
ed,  they  should  do  nothing  else.     Parliamen- 
tary obstruction  by  the  Nationalists  had  been 
-begun  before  Parnell  appeared.     Biggai    and 
other  of  the  Irish  members  had  introduced  it  ; 
but  it  was  not  until  Parnell  came  to  the  front 
that 


AliiiiiaiUikdttteMiMi 


the  principal  speakers,  while,  at  the  by-elec- 
tions, the  Irish  members  were  more  numerous 
and  more  active  in  behalf  of  the  Liberal  can- 
didate than  the  members  of  his  own  political 
paity. 

If  there  is  this  breaking  away,  and  the  Na- 
tionalists resort  again  to    their  old  tactics,  it 
will  Boon  be  demonstrated  how  fai  the  oppor- 
tunitiea  for  obstructien  are   restricted  by  the 
hitherto    untried    rules  which  Parncll's    con- 
duct forced  tho  House,  in    self-protection,  to 
adopt.     These  rules    give   the    Speaker  large 
discretionary  pouevs    in   dealing  with  the  va- 
j  riety  tf  obstructive    tactics    Biggar  and  Par- 
j  nell  introduced    and    perfected.     It   is  left  to 
the  Cfauir  to    say  when    a    question    has  been 
I  adequately  discussed.     The    Speaker  can  also 
call  tho  attention  of  the  House  to  the  conduct 
of  a  member  who    persists    in  irrelevance,  or 
in  tedious  repetition  either    of  his    own  argu- 
ments or  of  the  arguments  used  by  other  mem- 
bers in  debate,  and  having^noaq^mav  d:?*^ 
Jlifi-Oli«ftiiB'ij-'Tn5nIoer  To   sit  down.     Rules  i 
like  these  would  have  saved  the  House  of  Com-  i 
mons  weeks  of  useless  talk  in  the  years  when  I 
Parnell  was  pushing    himself  forward  for  the 
parliamentary    leadership. 

These    powers    are    enjoyed    both    by    the 
Speaker  and  by  the  Chairman  of  CommitteeB, 
and    neither    Mr.  Gully    nor  Mr.  J.  W.  Lowl 
ther  is  likely  to    refrain    from  their  use  when 
occasion  demands.     Both  the  Speaker  ana  the 
Chairman  are  now    vested     with    powers    for 
dealing  with  obstructive  motions  for  adjourn- 
ment which  they  did  not  possess  in  the  seven- 
ties.    Either  of  them  may,  when  he  is  of  opi- 
nion that  a  motio-a  is  an  abuse  of  the  rules  of 
the  House,  and  purely  obstructive,  decline  to 
put  it  from  the  chair.     The  overhauling  of  the 
rules    wtiich  concern  the    daily  meeting    and 
rising  of  the  Housa  made  in  1887  also  renders 
obstruction    less  possible    on  account  of    the 
number  of  occasions    on    which  the  rules  au- 
thorize the  Speaker     to    adjourn    the    House 
without  putting  the  question.     But  drastic  as 
are  many  of   these  changes,  the  opportunities 
for  obstruction  are  still  numerous.     It  is  still 
possible  for  questions  almost  without  limit  to 
be  addressed  to  Ministers    when    the    House 
meets  each   ,day,_  Jt ,  ig    still    ppppibjo   fr>r  a 


In 
mlnai 
some 
new  E 
the  ar 
to  the 
Sacks 
the  n 
diers 
neigh 
ed  a  1 
cor  w| 
the  o{ 
consid 
the  e^ 
sons 
"As 
and  al 

f.ime 
a  til 
WateJ 

racus 

lino 

vorii 

son 'J 

the 

tern 

and 

soldi 

ul 

fuge 

ing 

in  { 

the 

Willi 

the 

nesG 

newl 

et'sf 


andl 
turi 
purj 
odsl 


imtm 


member  who  can  get  forty  other  members  to 
rise  in  their  places  to  support  him,  to  deprive 
the  House  of  two  or  thre^iouraMim^r^hfl 


lee 
In 
erpc 


Jeaderahip  of  the  new  home-rule  movement 
ivofi  in  some  respecta  eimilar  to  that  of  Mr. 
Juetiu  McCarthy  at  (he  prefieqJjfcJiiaaer-^M)-. 
'E-i^!r»iV/f  Beaiy  is  to  Mr.  McCarthy  much 
•what  Parnell  was  to  Butt  between  1875  and 
1879,  and  although  the  caee  of  the  Manchester 
martyrs  of  1867,  which  waa  so  prominent  in 
the  early  years  of  the  home-rule  movement, 
is  now  only  recalled  at  the  anniversary  of 
their  execution,  their  place  as  a  subject  of 
parliamentary  controversy  is  taken  by  the  dy- 
namite convicts,  in  whom  all  eections  of  the 
Irisii  party  of  the  present  day  evince  a  lively 
and  competing  interest. 

Parnell  had  entered  the  House  of  Commons 
in  1875,  when  the  movement,  started  and  then 
led  by  Butt,  was  four  or  live    years    old.     In 
1877,  however,  Butt's    parliamentary    leader- 
ship was  a  leadership    only    in  name.     There 
was  no  unity  in  the  party  :  the  leader  counted 
for  little;  and  no  one  paid  less  regard  to  Butt 
than  did  Parnell,  who  was  working  to   a  plan 
of  his  own,  and  with  Biggar,  O'Donnell,  and 
O'Oonor   Power    was    using    obstruction    to 
show  the  Conservative    government    and    the 
House  of  Commons  that,    if    they    were    not 
disposed  to  do  what  the  Nationalists  demand- 
ed, they  should  do  nothing  else.     Parliamen- 
tary obstruction  by  the  Nationalists  bad  been 
-  -begun  before  Parnell  appeared.     Biggai    aad 
other  of  the  Irish  members  had  introduced  it ; 
but  it  was  not  until  Parnell  came  to  the  front 
that    obstruction    was      perfected   as   a   par- 
liamentary   plan  of  campaign,    an'd    pushed 
as      far      as      the       then       existing       rules 
of        procedure         in        the         Houae        of 
Commons  would  permit.     Three  years  before 
Parnell  became  the    parliamentary  chairman 
of  the  Irish  party,  he  and    his  little   group  of 
supporters,  to  the  dismay  of  Butt,  had  begjn 
to  tost  the  patience  of   the    House  to    its    ex- 
tremest  limit.    In  1887  they  brought  their  me- 
thods into    play  on  the    prisons    bill,  on   the 
vote  for  the  army  reserve,and  later  on  a  South 
African  bill.     They  discussed  to  a  wearisome 
length  all  the  clauses  of   the  prisons  bill,  and 
made   numerous    motions    for   adjournment 
solely  with  the    intention  of    trooping  mem- 
bers through  the  division  lobbies  and  wasting 
the  time  of  the  House.     On  the  army   reserve 
Tote  they  kept  the  Hous^  of  Commons  sitting 
from    four  o'clock  one  afternoon    until  seven 
o'clock  next    morning.     This  was  the  first  of 
the    all-night  sittings  whicb   the  Nationalists 
wantonly  imposed  on  the  House.    It  was  soon 
-fotiowed  by  others  of  iongex^aijTAtion,~alid  oc- 
casionally by  sittings  which  were  made  to  ex- 
tend into  Sunday.     In  1878  Parnell  had  often 
twelve  or  fourteen  notices   of  i^otions  on  the 
order  papers    of    a  single   day,  every    one  of 
them  obviously  placed   there  only  with  a  view 
to  obstruction.     Be  and  his  associates    talked 
again 


member  who  can  get  forty  other  members  to 
rise  in  their  places  to  support  him,  to  deprive 
the  House  of  two  or  three  hours'  time  in  the 
early  part  of  the  day's  sitting  by  a  useless 
discussion  on  what  the  member  and  his  sup- 
porters assert  to  be  a  matter  of  urgent  public 
importance.  These  discussions  were  frequent- 
ly raised  by  Irish  members  during  Mr.  Ar- 
thur Balfour's  tenure  of  the  Irish  office.  The 
plan  then  received  the  sanction  of  the  Libe- 
rals. It  can  bo  adopted  with  greater  fre- 
quency if  the  Liberals  and  the  Jsatiocalista 
should  part  company;  for  all  three  sections 
of  the  Nationalist  party  would  support  any 
scheme  for  discussing  an  Irish  grievance  real 
or  imaginary.  It  is  still  also  possible  for 
any  member  to  take  up  the  role  so  long  played 
by  Biggar  of  the  objector  to  any  contentious 
business  being  taken  after  twelve  o'clock  at 
night.  The  member  making  the  objection 
may  be  the  only  person  who  regards  the  busi- 
ness proposed  to  be  taken  after  that  hour  as 
contentious ;  but  when  once  he  has  lodged 
his  objection,  the  business  must  go  over  to 
another  day. 


menis  or  oi  too  arguments  useu  ay  otner  mem- 
bers in  debate, and  having  donojio^ma?_jl'.we^; 
jUja-otf«iu«rg~' rneniDeF  to  sit  down.  Rules  j 
like  these  would  have  saved  the  House  uf  Com-  i 
mona  weeks  of  useless  talk  in  the  years  when  ! 
Parnell  was  pushing  himself  forward  for  the 
parliamentary    leadership. 

These  powers  are  enjoyed  both  by  the 
Speaker  and  by  the  Chairman  of  Committees, 
and  neither  Mr.  Gully  nor  Mr.  J.  W.  Low- 
ther  is  likely  to  refrain  from  their  use  when 
occasion  demands.  Both  the  Speaker  ana  the 
Chairman  are  now  vested  with  powers  for 
dealing  with  obstructive  motions  for  adjourn- 
ment which  they  did  not  possess  in  the  seven- 
ties. Either  of  them  may,  when  he  is  of  opi- 
nion that  a  motion  is  an  abuse  of  the  rules  of 
the  House,  and  purely  obstructive,  decline  to 
put  it  from  the  chair.  The  overhauling  of  the 
rules  wtiich  concern  the  daily  meeting  and 
rising  of  the  House  made  in  1887  also  renders 
obstruction  less  possible  on  account  of  the 
number  of  occasions  on  which  the  rules  au- 
thorize the  Speaker  to  adjourn  the  House 
without  putting  the  question.  But  drastic  as 
are  many  of  these  changes,  the  opportunities 
for  obstruction  are  still  numerous.  It  is  still 
possible  for  questions  almost  without  limit  to 
be  addressed  to  Ministers  when  the  House 
meets  each  _day. It  .  is    Ktill    pngRtMo   for  !^ 


andl 
turi 
pur] 
ode  I 


^JBiffanra  government  and  the 
House  of  Oommons  that,  if  they  were  not 
disposed  to  do  what  the  Niationalists  demand- 
ed, they  should  do  nothing  else.  Parliamen- 
tary obstruction  by  the  Nationalists  bad  been 
iegim  before  Parcell  appeared.  Biggai  and 
other  of  the  Irish  members  had  introduced  it ; 
but  it  was  not  until  Farnell  came  to  the  front 
that  obstruction  was  perfected  as  a  par- 
liamentary plan  of  campaign,  an'd  pushed 
as  far  as  the  then  existing  rules 
of  procedure  in  the  House  of 
Commons  would  permit.  Three  years  before 
Parnell  became  the  parliamentary  chairman 
of  the  Irish  party,  he  and  his  little  group  of 
eupporters,  to  the  dismay  of  Butt,  bad  began 
to  tost  the  patience  of  the  House  to  its  ex- 
tremest  limit.  In  1887  they  brought  their  me- 
thods into  play  on  the  prisons  bill,  on  the 
vote  for  the  army  reserve,and  later  on  a  South 
African  bill.  They  discussed  to  a  wearisome 
length  all  the  clauses  of  the  prisons  bill,  and 
made  numerous  motions  for  adjournment 
Bolely  with  the  intention  of  trooping  mem- 
bers through  the  division  lobbies  and  wasting 
the  time  of  the  House.  On  the  army  reserve 
vote  they  kept  the  Hous6  of  Commons  sitting 
from  four  o'clock  one  afternoon  until  seven 
o'clock  next  morning.  This  was  the  first  of 
the  all-night  sittings  which  the  Nationalists 
wantonly  impqsed  on  the  House.  It  was  soon 
Tfollowed  by  otb«rs  ot  lougez'Wir&fipn,  ancl  oc- 
casionally by  sittings  which  were  made  to  ex- 
tend into  Sunday.  In  1878  Parnell  had  often 
twelve  or  fourteen  notices  of  E&btions  on  the 
order  papers  of  a  single  day,  every  one  of 
them  obviously  placed  there  only  with  a  view 
to  obstruction.  He  and  his  associates  talked 
against  time  on  numberless  occasions,  and 
Biggar's  ingenuity  bit  on  the  plan  of  reading 
to  the  House  from  an  old  blue  book  for  long 
stretches  at  a  time.    * 

This  was  during  the  leadership  of  Butt  and 
later  on  of  Shaw.  When  Parnell  became  lead- 
er of  the  party  in  1880, and  had  a  following  of 
more  than  sixty  members,  for  two  sessions  at 
least,  obstruction  was  practised  with  greater 
persistency  and  with  greater  succesd  from  the 
Nationalist  point  of  view.  The  Liberals  were 
now  in  oflBce  and  were  worse  treated  than  the 
Tories  had  been  in  the  1874-80  Parliament. 
On  the  coercion  bill  which  followed  tne 
change  of  administration,  there  was  one  de- 
bate which  was  spun  out  for  twenty'^two 
bours  without  a  break,  and  at  another  sitting, 
when  the  same  measure  was  before  the  House, 
the  sitting  was  made  to  extend  from  four 
o'clobk  oik  a  Monday  afternoon  until  nine' 
o'clock  on  Wednesday  morning,  and  no  real 
prOgresa  was  made  with  the  bill  until  the 
chair  refused  to  hear  any  more  speeches,  and 
the  obsttuutionists  withdrew. 

Since  then,  however,  the  rules  of  procedure 
have  be 


are  many  of  these  changes,  the  opportuniities 
for  obstruction  are  still  numerous.  It  is  still 
possible  for  questions  almost  without  limit  to 
be  addressed  to  Ministers  when  the  House 
meets  each    da;:.,,  Jt  .  i^.  ,gliJL  p^^B^M"   ^"^  '^ 


and! 
turi 
pur] 
odsl 


member  who  can  get  forty  other  members  to 
rise  in  their  places  to  support  him,  to  deprive 
the  House  of  two  ot  three  hours'  time  in  the 
early  part  of  the  day's  sitting  by  a  useless 
discussion  on  what  the  member  and  his  sup- 
porters assert  to  be  a  matter  of  urgent  public 
importance.  These  discussions  were  frequent- 
ly raised  by  Irish  members  during  Mr.  Ar- 
thur Balfour's  tenure  of  the  Irish  office.  The 
plan  then  received  the  sanction  of  the  Libe- 
rals. It  can  bo  adopted  with  greater  fre- 
quency if  the  Liberals  and  the  Nationalists 
should  part  company ;  for  all  three  sections 
of  the  Nationalist  party  would  support  any 
scheme  for  discussing  an  Irish  grievance  real 
or  imaginary.  It  is  still  also  possible  for 
any  member  to  take  up  the  r61e  eo  long  played 
by  Biggar  of  the  objector  to  any  contentious 
business  being  taken  after  twelve  o'clock  at 
night.  The  member  making  the  objection 
may  be  the  only  person  who  regards  the  busi- 
ness proposed  to  be  taken  after  that  hour  as 
contentious ;  but  when  once  he  has  lodged 
his  objection,  the  business  must  go  over  to 
another  day. 


leraurAtiQD,  and  oc 
cB8loDally  1)7  BlttiDgs  vrhicti  were  made  to  ex- 

tend  into  Sunday.  In  1878  Farnell  bad  often 
twelve  or  fourteen  notices  of  n^btions  on  the 
order  papers  of  a  single  day,  every  one  of 
them  obviously  placed  there  only  with  a  view 
to  obstruction,  lie  and  his  associates  talked 
against  time  on  numbeiless  occasions,  and 
Biggar's  ingenuity  bit  on  the  plan  of  reading 
to  the  Eou6e  from  an  old  blue  book  for  long 
stretches  at  a  time.    * 

This  was  during  the  leadership  of  Sutt  and 
later  on  of  Shaw.  When  Parnell  became  lead- 
er of  the  party  in  1880, and  had  a  following  of 
more  than  sixty  members,  for  two  sessions  at 
least,  obstruction  was  practised  with  greater 
persistency  and  with  greater  succesd  from  the 
Nationalist  point  of  view.  The  Liberals  were 
now  in  office  and  were  worse  treated  than  the 
Tories  had  been  in  the  1874-80  Parliament. 
On  the  coercion  bill  which  followed  tbe 
change  of  administration,  there  was  one  de- 
bate which  was  spun  out  for  twenty-two 
hours  without  a  break,  and  at  another  bitting, 
when  the  same  measure  was  before  the  Bouse, 
the  sitting  was  made  to  extend  from  four 
o'clock  on  a  Monday  afternoon  until  nine 
o'clock  on  Wednesday  morning,  and  no  real 
prbgress  was  made  with  tbe  bill  until  the 
chair  refused  to  hear  any  more  speeches,  and 
the  obstructionists  withdrew. 

Since  then,  bowever,  the  rules  of  procedure 
have  been  amended  on  two  occasions,  in  1882 
and  again  in  1887 ;  and  since  1883  the  Na- 
tionalists have  seldom  come  into  conflict  with 
the  House.  Individual  members,  such  as 
Ur.  Tanner,  have  been  suspended  occasionally 
for  conduct  disrespectful  to  the  House,  but 
since  the  new  rules  there  has  been  no  organ- 
ized and  systematic  obstruction  from  the  Irish 
party  as  a  whole.  The  reasons  for  the  cessa- 
tion are  easy  to  explain.  After  the  troubles  of 
1882,  when  the  most  drastic  changes  were  made 
in  the  rules,  tbe  principal  business  of  the 
House  of  Commons  was  the  franchise  act  of 
1884, which  so  enormously  increased  Parnell's 
political  power  in  Ireland.  It  would  have  been 
liad  policy  to  obstruct  this  measure.  Tne 
franchise  act  was  soon  followed  by  Mr.  Glad- 
stone's conversion  to  home  rule,  and  with  that 
conversion  came  the  Liberal  and  Nationalist 
Biiianae,  which  iasied  from  l£o5  through  the 
Gladstone  administration  of  1885-86,  the 
Unionist  administration  of  1886-92,  and  the 
late  Liberal  administrations.  For  about  four 
of  these  years  the  Liberals  were  in  office  with 
the  Nationalists  as  their  close  allies.  During 
the  remaining  six  years,  although  the  Union- 
ists were  in  office, the  Nationalists  were  great- 
ly restrained  by  their  close  connection  with 
the  Liberals,  and  by  the  expectation  that  the 
Liberals  would  be  returned  to  office,  and  would 

iiiMiiiiMlilliliiiiiiliiilflillMk 


1,  iJuv,o,ci,  wio  rules  of  procedure 
have  been  amended  on  two  occasions,  in  1882 
and  again  in  1887 ;  and  Biiice  1883  the  Na- 
tionalists hpve  seldom  come  into  conflict  with 
the  House.  Individual  members,  such  as 
Dr.  Tanner,  have  been  suspended  occasionally 
for  conduct  disrespectful  to  the  House,  but 
eince  the  new  rules  there  has  been  no  organ- 
ized and  systematic  obstruction  from  the  Irish 
party  as  a  whole.  The  reasons  for  the  cessa- 
tion are  easy  to  explain.  After  the  troubles  of 
1882,  when  the  most  drastic  changes  were  made 
in  the  rules,  the  principal  business  of  the 
House  of  Commons  was  the  franchise  act  of 
1884, which  so  enormously  increased  ParneH's 
political  power  in  Ireland.  It  would  have  been 
bad  policy  to  obstruct  this  measure.  The 
franchise  wet  was  soon  followed  by  Mr.  Qlad- 
etone's  conversion  to  home  rule,  and  with  that 
conversion  came  the  Liberal  and  Nationalist 
aiiianoe,  whioh  iaaied  from  ISSH  through  ti 
Gladstone  administration  of  1885-86,  the 
Unionist  administration  of  1886-92,  and  the 
late  Liberal  administrations.  For  about  four 
of  these  years  the  Liberals  were  in  ofiBce  with 
the  Nationalists  as  their  close  allies.  During 
the  remaining  six  years,  although  the  Union- 
ists were  in  office, the  Nationalists  were  great- 
ly restrained  by  their  close  connection  with 
the  Liberals,  and  by  the  expectation  that  the 
Liberals  would  be  returned  tooflSce,and  would 
follow  up  the  rejected  bill  of  1886  with  a  se- 
cond home-rule  measure.  Thus  for  twelve 
years  it  has  been  to  the  advantage  of  the  Na- 
tionalists to  allow  their  old  policy  of  obstruc- 
tion to  remain  in  abeyance. 

The  extent  to  which  the  old  obstructive 
policy  will  be  revived  will  depend  largely  upon 
the  continuance  or  severance  of  the  alliance 
between  the  Liberals  and  the  Nationalists. 
If  it  comes  to  an  end,  the  Nationalists  will 
be  much  freer  to  resume  the  parliamentary 
tactics  of  the  esrly  period  of  the  home-rule 
movement.  If  it  continues,  such  a  policy 
oannot  well  bo  adopted;  for  the  Liberals, now 
in  opposition,  are  not  likely  to  compromise 
themuolves  by  joining  in  a  course  of  conduct 
like  that  which,  from  1877  to  1882,  almost 
drove  the  House  of  Commons  to  desperation, 
fresent  gain  would  result  to  both  parties  if 
there  was  an  easing  off  from  the  existing  re- 
lationships, and  it  may  be  taken  as  settled 
that  there  will  not  be  continued  during  this 
Parliament  anything  like  the  intimate  rela- 
tionships which  existed  during  the  last  Par- 
liament, in  which  the  Liberals  and  the  Na- 
tionaliets  formed  the  opposition.  During 
those  years  the  Liberal  whips  were  really  the 
whips  of  the  Nqtionaliat  party;  and  there  was 
scarcely  a  Liberal  political  meeting  in  the  con- 
stituencies at  which  Irish    members  were  not 


YORK.    THURSDAY.    DECEMBER    12.    1895. 


THE  GRIEVANCES  OF  IRELAND. 

How  Reforms  Have  Been  Checked  by 
the  Power  of  Steady  Opposition- 
Urgency  of  the  Financial  Question. 


DcBl.i  ■ 

.\-.\.-, 

.'»      12. 

!\     tho  Kionnrj  J'oat    of 

I,-1.,:.- 

»  "An 

jworvcr"  rxhihils  ,i      -tiiiriy' 

;  n  i  .-- 

r'i>fi(iu 

'I 


I 

|m 


kis 
jto 

F>y 

ou 

irt 

Ise 


\9, 
Id 
te 
Ih 
ll 


'1 

!)ftlH.  lii^li  iircihUiii.  a  iiiiMi>iH<'|'' 't>n  whicli 
Is  coinMicn  iiicipt'  ;n;iiiutj  lictth  Eiifrlishmen 
and  Irish  Unionisit,  wlu'  Hnve?);'!''  liri,.<  atten- 
tion to  the  history  of  Irish  affairs  during  this 
century. 

The  dend  opposition  of  the  English  to  all 
innovation  in  Ireland  has  certainly  checked 
reforms  and  changes  which  would  have  been 
made  in  Ireland  long  ago  in  conformity  with 
the  wishes  of  the  vast  majority  of  the  resi- 
dents in  Ireland.  It  has  not,  however,  check- 
ed the  desire  for  reform,  and  the  statement  that 
the  opposition  of  English  statesmen  broke  the 
power  of  O'Connell  and  terminated  tl^e  repeal 
agitation,  if  lijerally  true,  isetrti.'goly  at  va- 

— "L? -r— I3^t*^ 


i-iance  with  reantcts. 
O'Connell's    withdrawal 


iiTerjr   levuraio,  oiilv 

from  Iiish  politics 
and  his  death,  have  seen  a  ;e;iewai  of  the  rc- 
I)eal  agitation  in  one  form  or  ar.otlier;  tlie 
abortive  rebellion  of  1848,  the  Phoenix  conspi- 
racy, the  Fenian  movement,  the  Land 
League, the  National  Federation,  have  been  agi- 
tations for  repeal  under  other  names.  In  Par- 
liament the  Nationalist  party,  though  shaken 
with  internal  divisions,  is  numerically  as 
strong  as  ever.  It  votes  and  will  vote  solid 
for  home  rtdc,  land  reform,  and  tinancial  jus- 
tice between  Great  Britain  and  Ireland. 

Ireland,  no  doubt,  is  weaker  than  she  was, 
with  a  vastly  diminished  population,  by  her 
retrogression  in  wealth  and  prosperity  com- 
pared with  Great  Britain  ;  but  the  statement 
that  Englishmen  view  Irish  [discontent  with 
deep  regret,  and  would  make  heavy  sacrifices 
to  render  Irishmen  loyal  citizens  of  the  em- 
pire, is  contradicted  both  by  the  past  and  the 
present  policy  of  the  imperial  Parliament. 
Promises  of  much-needed  reforms,  of  mea- 
sures passed  long  since  in  Great  Britain, 
made  during  the  last  forty  years,  remain  un- 
fulfilled and  unlikely  to  be  fulfilled.  One  il- 
lustration will  suffice:  the  assimilation  of 
the  municipal  franchise  to  that  established  in 
England.  Successive  governments  Imve  pro- 
mised^to  deal  with  this  matter  for  years ;  it 
uulu  iuvjii^vd  no  bacii:^ccs  t.;-  JSngiishmen, 
yet  a  bilt^J  carried  last  sesaion  through  three 
readings  m  the  House  of  Commons  was 
thrown  out  by  the  House  of  Lords  on  the  en- 
try of  the  present  Tory  government  into 
oflSce.  Our  local  governing  bodies  are  conse- 
quently not  on  the  democratic  basis  that 
"Observer"  suggests  for  our  parliamentary 
representation.  The  first  remedy  he  pro- 
poses is  t^e  reduction  of  the  number  of  Irish 
members!,  inasmuch  as  they  are  now  in  excess 
of  the  proportion  Ireland  is  entitled  to  in  re- 
spect of  her  diminished  and  Great  Britain's 
increased"  population ;  but  he  omits  to  state 
that  for  the  first  seventy  years  of  the  century 
Ireland  was  under-represented  on  this  prin- 
ciple. 

"Observer's"  second  remedy  is  to  extend 
the  system  of  local  government  established  in 
Great  Britain  to  Ireland.  This  has  long  been 
asked  for,  and  in  1891  the  Conservatives  took 
office  pledged  to  pass  such  a  measure  for  Ire- 
land. They  produced  a  bill, but  one  so  unlike 
the  English  and  Scotch  acts,  so  limited  in  its 
scope  and  absurdly  insufficient,  that  it  was 
laughed  out  of  the  House  of  Commons,  and 
has  never  been  heard  of  since.  An  essential 
accompaniment  of  any  local-government  act 
for  Ireland  should  be,  according  to  "Ob- 
server," the  "retention  of  power  to  check  the 
aberrations  of  1  jcal  authorities."  To  the 
English  mind,  all  acts  of  administration  by  a 
popularly  elected  body,  carrying  out  the 
wishes  of  its  electors,  are  "aberrations"  if 
not  in  accordance  with  English  opinion. 

As  a  solution  of  the  education  question, 
"Observer"  would  leave  the  system  to  be  set- 
tled in  accordance  with  the  wishes  of  the  Irish 
people ;  but  this  is  just  what  successive  Brit- 
ish governments  have  consistently  refused  to 
do,. with  the  result  that  in  Ireland  we  are  far 
behind  the  rest  of  the  civilized  world  in  our 
educational  appliances,  facilities,  and  teach- 
ing. The  state  of  education  in  Ireland  is  a 
remarkable  instance  of  the  incompetence  of 
the  British  government  in  this  country,  and 
of  its  neglect  of  the  primary  wants  of  the  peo- 
ple. In  every  civilized  country,  including 
Great  Britain,  primary  education  has  long 
been  compulsory,  and  supplied  at  the  cost  of 
the  state,  not  of  the  individpp.le.  It  wr.?  only 
last  yeni  that  n  limited  system  of  compulsion 
was  iiilroduccd  into  Ireland,  and  the  whole 
evstom  of  education,  the  books  i)rcscrjhc.i.nr!d 
inothods  of   trainiui,'  and  paying  teachers,  are 

antiquated. 

As  to  secondary  and  university  education: 
conliscations,  spoliation,  and  diversion  of 
Catholic  endowments,  as  well  as  the  operation 
of  the  penal  laws,  have  prevented  the  growth 
of  such  a  Fystem  of  schools  and  colleges  as  ex- 
ists in  England ;  but  instead  of  liberally  sup- 
plying a  manifest  want,  grants  of  scanty 
funds,  wrung  from  time  to  time  from  the 
British  Parliament  by  Irish  persistence,  have 
been  accompanied  by  conditions  which  rob- 
bed them  of  both  grace  and  efficiency.  The 
endowment  of  a  Catholic  university  in  a  way 
to  put  Catholics  on  an  equality  with  the  Pro- 
testant community, which  has  had  the  rich  en- 
dowments of  Trinity  College  as  its  exclusive 
possession  since  the  reign  of  Elizabeth,  has 
been  refused  so  often  that  there  would  be  lit- 
tle grace  in  granting  it  now.  Trinity  College 
is  now  theoretically  open  to  Catholics,  but 
they  are  as  unwilling  to  make  use  of  an  insti- 
tution saturated  with  Protestantism,  under 
Protestant  government  and  teaching,  as  Pro- 
testants would  be  to  send  their  sons  to  a  col- 
lege where  Catholicism  prevaile^J^the  same 
extent 

"Observer  '  truly  maintains  that  the  root  of 
Irish  discontent  is  dissatisfaction  with  the 
system  of  land  tenure  which  has  lasted  for 
centuries,  and  his  remedy  for  this  is  that  the 
tenants  shall  purchase  the  \ands  by  means  of 
loans  from  the  state.  Well,  on  the  occasion 
of  Mr. Gladstone's  first  land  act  of  1870, before 
the  franchise  was  broadened  in  Ireland,  this 
was  a  measure  pressed  upon  Parliament  by 
representative  Irishmen,  and  opposed  by  the 
landlord  class :  it  was  one  of  the  planks  in  the 
Land  League  platform  in  1881,  and  was  urged 
on  the  English  government  by  two  landlord 
members  of  a  royal  commission  appointed 
to  inquire  into  Irish  land  tenure;  the  princi- 
ple was  at  last  adopted  in  1885  in  a  tentative 
form,  accompanied  by  the  retention  of  so 
many  legal  difficulties  that  at  the  rate  at 
which  it  has  operated  for  the  last  eight  years 
it  would  take  a  century  to  transform  the 
tenant  farmers  of  Ireland  into  owners. 

"Observer"  thinks  the  British  electors 
would  Hppiove  of  n  Dold  and  liberal  scheme 
of  laud  purchase  {•vt-n  if  it  involved  consider- 
able expense.  Tfio  British  electorate  and 
the  Irish  landlords  combined  in  IHyi  in  refus- 
ing to  accept  a  bold  scheme  proposed  by  Mr. 
Gladstone,  and  one  that  would  have  been  so 
liberal  to  the  landlords  that  it  would  have 
pressed  both  hardly  and  ruinously  on  the  ten- 


to  avail  of  it.  Between  1870  and  1880  the 
Irish  landlords  opiiosed  every  legislative  pro- 
posa.  to  facilitate  the  purchase  of  land  by 
the  tenant  farmers;  and  so  late  as  the  session 
of  18y4  they  defeated  the  n)otion  for  a  com- 
mittee of  inquiry  into  the  workingt  of  the 
purchase  acts. 

One  of  the  most  urpront  questions  affooting 
the  welfare  of  li-.liind  is  tiie  adjustment  of 
lier  tinancial  relations  with  Great  Britain.  A 
royal  commission  inquiring  into  the  subject 
has  now  been  sitting  for  a  year;  it  has  taken 
a  great  deal  of  evidence,  and  collected  a  vast 
mass  of  figures  and  information.  The  claim 
of  Ireland  that  she  is  overtaxed  has  been  very 
fully  established,  not  only  by  the  figures  col- 
lected by  the  commission,  but  by  the  evidence 
of  Dr.  Giffen,  one  of  the  jjrineipal  secretaries 
of  the  Board  of  Trade,  un  economist  and  sta- 
tistician of  the  highest  repute  in  England. 
His  official  position  has  given  him  unique  ad- 
vantages for  studying  the  comparative  wealth 
of  diffi>rent  rlasses  and  groups  of  persons 
in  the  llnited  Kingdom;  his  off'ui.il  lernirts 
and  j)oiiiodical  addresses  to  the  Statistical  So- 
ric  •  ..,.  o  \~:,4,  ...i-iliiid  Liu.  .,•'♦  fii  <ho  first  au- 
tho.  '  "1  questions  of  fina'^r*"  eo'^'nl  and  po- 
lilii  •onoiry.      His     eviriti'c-e    astounded 

and  «,.. -  <<riat  ort.  iice  to  the  English  Trea- 
sury officials.  So  far  from  the  English  tax- 
payer making  sacrifices  or  going  to  consid- 
erable expense  for  the  purpose  of  quieting 
Irish  discontent,  the  reverse  has  been  the  case. 
Ireland's  discontent  or  disloyalty  is  largely 
due  to  her  poverty,  and  one  cause  of  that  pov- 
erty has  been  excessive  taxation.  Ireland  now 
contributes  about  one-twelfth  of  the  imperial 
reventte.  Dr.  Gitfen  showed  that  vital  statis- 
tics indicate  (1)  a  general  inferior  condition 
of  the  inhabitants  of  Ireland ;  (2)  a  larger 
proportion  of  old  and  feeble  persons,  and  a 
smaller  proportion  of  persons  in  the  prime  of 
life.  Labor  statistics  show  (3)  that,  man  for 
man,  the  incomes  of  the  wage-earning  classes 
in  Ireland  are  little  more  than  half  of  those  in 
Great  Britain,  for  there  are  comparatively' 
few  of  the  highly  paid  artisan  class,  and  there 
is  a  great  preponderance  of  the  employments 
paid  at  a  lower  rate  than  others.  (4. )  As  in- 
dicated by  the  income  tax,  Ireland's  proportion 
of  wealth  is  about  one  twenty-fourth  that  of 
the  United  Kingdom,  but,  allowing  for  the 
stii(;1er  !lss^■8^Il;^  at  prevaient  in  Ireland  and  for 
u  vt'iy  consideiable  aniount  of  property  taxed 
in  Ireland  b>it  owned  and  the  income  spent  in 
Engluud,  Irtlaud'u  t^'^'  reio'j-rees  are  y 
much  less  than  the  income  tax  figures' show. 
(5. )  Taking  the  death  duties  as  a  standard,. 
Ireland's  proportion  is  about  the  same  as  that 
shown  by  the  Income  tax,  but  this  requires  ad- 
justment for  absentee  property,  for  successions 
being  more  frequent  in  Ireland  owing  to  the 
greater  number  of  aged  persons,  and  for  the 
fact  that,  proi)erty  in  Ireland  selling  for  a  less 
number  of  years'  purchase  than  in  Great  Bri- 
tain, the  succession  duty,  levied  heretofore  on 
the  annual  value,  is  a  larger  part  of  the  capital 
value  than  in  Great  Britain.  (6. )  Ireland  is 
rapidly  losing  ground  as  compared  with  Great 
Britain  in  wealth  and  prosperity.  (7. )  A 
very  large  amount  of  British  wealth  engaged 
in  commerce  escapes  taxation,  but  this  is  not 
the  case  in  Ireland.  In  these  circumstances 
the  resources  of  Ireland  as  compared  with 
those  of  Great  Britain  would  be  denoted  by  a 
fraction  between  one-fortieth  and  one-flftieth 
— that  is,  Ireland's  contribution  to  the  impe- 
rial revenue  should  bo  about  'i'^r^  instead  of 
eight  millions. 

In  views  of  these  facts  Hod  figures  it  is  high- 
ly absurd  to  speak  of  Great  Mritnin''-.  liberality 
or  generosity  to  jiolftnd.  'I'he  excess  of  iri-;h 
taxation  over  whr.t  v  o\ild  be  fair  between  the 
two  countries,  and  the  absentee  rental  remit- 
ted annually  from  Ireland,  have  the  same  finan- 
cial effect  as  a  perpetual  bad  harvest,  or  as  if 
the  entire  potato  crop  were  lost,  or  the  whole 
salable  produce  of  the  live  stock  of  the  coun- 
try were  carried  away  without  return.  Ire- 
land, a  purely  agricultural  and  pastoral  coun- 
try, without  foreign  commerce,  and  without 
industries  and  manufactures, has  to  contribute 
to  the  protection  and  extension  of  Great  Bri- 
tain's vast  commercial  system  and  to  her  cost- 
ly foreign  policyi  and  she  gets  no  return  for 
her  contributions. 

The  financial  relations  between  the  two 
countries  are  those  rather  of  a  usurer  and  a 
needy  borrower  than  of  a  mother  or  a  sister 
country.  Irish  deposits  in  the  savings  banks 
amounts  to  about  £7,000,000 ;  the  depositors  re- 
ceive 2)^  i^er  cent,  interest,  and  the  funds  are 
lent  back  to  Ireland  by  the  Treasury  at  not 
less  than  3>^  per  cent.  Ireland  is  reproached 
by  the  British  Pharisee  with  want  of  Relf-rell- 
ance,  a  ith  expecting  government  to  do  every- 
thing :  but  her  entire  taxable  revenue  is  cap- 
tuud'ythe  imperial  government,  and  can- 
not 1x3  spent  except  by  permission  of  Parlia- 
ment The  waste  and  misapplication  of  pub- 
lic money  could  not  be  worse  under  the  most 
corrupt  Irish  government  conceivable.  Muni- 
cipal and  local  enterprise  is  practically  im- 
possible, for  every  scheme  must  pass  through 
Parliament  at  Westminster,  where  the  ex- 
penses of  passing  an  Irish  "private  bill"  are 
£o  great  as  to  be  prohibitive. 

An  Ikishmav. 


liREATHABT^E  AIR. 


YORK.    THURSDAY.    DECEMBER    12.    1895. 


THE  GRIEVANCES  OF  IRELAKD. 


Wow  Reforms  Have  Been  Cheeked  by 
the  Power  of  Steady  Opposition — 
Urgency  of  the  Financial  Question. 


lis 
Ito 

ly 

|ou 

krt 


Dublin,  ^iovember  12. 

In  the  Evening  Post  of  October  19  "An 
Observer"  exhibits  a  strange  misoonfeption 
of  the  Irish  problem,  a  misconception  which 
is  common  enough  among  both  Englishmen 
and  Irish  Unionists  who  have  paid  little  atten- 
tion to  the  history  of  Irish  affairs  during  this 
century. 

The  dead  opposition  of  the  English  to  all 
innovation  in  Ireland  has  certainly  checked 
reforms  and  changes  which  would  have  been 
made  in  Ireland  long  ago  in  conformity  with 
the  wishes  of  the  vast  majority  of  the  resi- 
dents in  Ireland.  It  has  not,  however,  check- 
ed the  desire  for  reform,  and  the  statement  that 
the  opposition  of  English  statesmen  broke  the 
power  of  O'Connell  and  terminated  the  repeal 
agitation,  iflUgrally  true,  i,H  etrangoiy  at  va- 
"rlance^  with  refflfe'cti.  ■"Erery  ?8^~>eaia,  since 
O'Connell's  withdrawal  from  Irish  politics 
and  his  death,  have  seen  a  yenewal  of  the  re- 
peal agitation  in  one  form  or  another ;  the 
abortive  rebellion  of  1848,  the  Phoenix  conspi- 
racy, the  Fenian  movement,  the  Land 
League,  the  National  Federation,  have  been  agi- 
tations for  repeal  under  other  names.  In  Par- 
liament the  Nationalist  party,  though  shaken 
with  internal  divisions,  is  numerically  as 
strong  as  ever.  It  votes  and  will  vote  solid 
for  home  rule,  land  reform,  and  financial  jus- 
tice between  Great  Britain  and  Ireland. 

Ireland,  no  doubt,  is„weaker  than  she  wiis, 
with  a  vastly  diminished  population,  by  her 
retrogression  in  wealth  and  prosperity  com- 
pared with  Great  Britain  ;  but  the  statement 
that  Englishmen  view  Irish  [discontent  with 
deep  regret,  and  would  make  heavy  sacrifices 
to  render  Irishmen  loyal  citizens  of  the  em- 
pire, is  contradicted  both  by  the  past  and  the 
present  policy  of  the  imperial  Parliament. 
Promises  of  much-needed  reforms,  of  mea- 
sures passed  long  since  in  Great  Britain, 
made  during  the  last  forty  years,  remain  un- 
fulfilled and  unlikely  to  be  fulfilled.  One  il- 
lustration will  suffice:  the  assimilation  of 
the  municipal  franfthise  to  that  established  in 
England.  Successive  governments  have  pro- 
mised to  deal  with  this    matter    for   years;  it 


to  avail  of  it.  Between  1870  and  18S0  the 
Irish  landlords  opposed  every  legislative  pro- 
posa.  to  facilitate  the  purchase  of  land  by 
the  tenant  farmers ;  and  so  late  as  the  session 
of  18y4  they  defeated  the  motion  for  a  com- 
mittee of  inquiry  into  the  working  of  the 
purchase  acts. 

One  of  the  most  urgent  questions  affecting 
the  welfare  of  Ireland  is  the  adjustment  of 
her  financial  relations  with  Great  Britain.  A 
royal  commission  inquiring  into  the  subject 
has  now  been  sitting  for  a  year ;  it  has  taken 
a  great  deal  of  evidence,  and  collected  a  vaet 
mass  of  figures  and  information.  The  claim 
of  Ireland  that  she  is  overtaxed  has  been  very 
fully  established,  not  only  by  the  figures  col- 
lected by  the  commission,  but  by  the  evidence 
of  Dr.  Giffen,  one  of  the  principal  secretaries 
of  the  Board  of  Trade,  an  economist  and  sta- 
tistician of  the  highest  repute  in  England. 
His  official  position  has  given  him  unique  ad- 
vantages for  studying  the  comparative  wealth 
of  different  classes  and  groups  of  persons 
in  the  United  Kingdom;  his  official  reports 
and  periodical  addresses  to  the  Statistical  So- 
cle-.,  ..I*  •  u  loixg  inaTkod  hii--.  ov^t  UM  tho  first,  au- 
tho.'i'.v  on  questions  of  finance  «oc'8l  and  po- 
litic conomy.  His  evidence  astounded 
and  ^av<- great  offence  to  the  English  Trea- 
sury ofldeials.  So  far  from  the  English  tax- 
payer making  sacrifices  or  going  to  consid- 
erable expense  for  the  purpose  of  quieting 
Irish  discontent,  the  reverse  has  been  the  case. 
Ireland's  discontent  or  disloyalty  is  largely 
due  to  her  poverty,  and  one  cause  of  that  pov- 
erty has  been  excessive  taxation.  Ireland  now 
contributes  about  one-twelfth  of  the  imperial 
revenue.  Dr.  Giffen  showed  that  vital  statis- 
tics indicate  (1)  a  general  inferior  condition 
of  the  inhabitants  of  Ireland ;  (2)  a  larger 
proportion  of  old  and  feeble  persons,  and  a 
emaller  proportion  of  persons  in  ttie  prime  of 
life.  Labor  statistics  show  (3)  that,  man  for 
man,  the  incomes  of  the  wage-earning  classes 
in  Ireland  are  little  more  than  half  of  those  in 
Great  Britain,  for  there  are  comparatively 
few  of  the  highly  paid  artisan  class,  and  there 
is  a  great  preponderance  of  the  employments 
paid  at  a  lower  rate  than  others.  (4. )  As  in- 
dicated by  the  income  tax,  Ireland's  proportion 
of  wealth  is  about  one  twenty-fourth  that  of 
the  United  Kingdom,  but,  allowing  for  the 
stricter  assessment  prevalent  in  Ireland  and  for 
a  very  considerable  amount  of  proi)erty  taxed 
in  Ireland  but  owned  and  the  income  epent  in 
lund,    Ireland's   re"'   Teean.Tces  at»  •^'»"' 


racy,  llie  Fenian  movement,  the  i^ana 
League,  the  National  Federation,  have  been  agi- 
tations for  repeal  under  other  names.  In  Par- 
liament the  Nationalist  party,  though  shaken 
with  internal  divisions,  is  immerically  as 
strong  as  ever.  It  votes  and  -will  vote  solid 
for  home  rule,  land  reform,  and  financial  jus- 
tice between  Great  Britain  and  Ireland. 

Ireland,  no  doubt,  is  weaker  than  she  was, 
with  a  vastly  diminished  population,  by  her 
retrogression  in  wealth  and  prosperity  com- 
pared with  Great  Britain  ;  but  the  statement 
that  Englishmen  view  Irish  [discontent  with 
deep  regret,  and  would  make  heavy  sacrifices 
to  render  Irishmen  loyal  citizens  of  the  em- 
pire, is  contradicted  both  by  the  past  and  the 
present  policy  of  the  imperial  Parliament. 
Promises  of  much-needed  reforms,  of  mea- 
sures passed  long  since  in  Great  Britain, 
made  during  the  last  forty  yeare,  remain  un- 
fulfilled and  unlikely  to  be  fulfilled.  One  il- 
lustration will  suffice:  the  assimilation  of 
the  municipal  franfchise  to  that  established  in 
England.  Successive  governments  have  pro- 
mised to  deal  with  this  matter  for  years;  it 
woula  involve  no  eacriSccs  t^.-  fiBstishmon, 
yet  a  bill  carried  last  fiession  through  three 
readings  in  the  House  of  Commons  was 
thrown  out  by  the  House  of  Lords  on  the  en- 
try of  the  present  Tory  government  into 
office.  Our  local  governing  bodies  are  conse- 
quently not  on  the  democratic  basis  that 
"Observer"  suggests  for  our  parliamentary 
representation.  The  first  remedy  he  pro- 
poses is  the  reduction  of  the  number  of  Irish 
members,  inasmuch  as  they  are  now  in  excess 
of  the  proportion  Ireland  is  entitled  to  in  re- 
spect of  her  diminished  and  Great  Britain's 
increased  population ;  but  he  omits  to  state 
that  for  the  first  seventy  years  of  the  century 
Ireland  was  under-represented  on  this  prin- 
ciple. 

"Observer's"  second  remedy  is  to  extend 
the  system  of  l9cal  government  established  in 
Great  Britain  to  Ireland.  This  has  long  been 
asked  for,  and  in  1891  the  Conservatives  took 
office  pledged  to  pass  such  a  measure  for  Ire- 
land. They  produced  a  bill, but  one  so  unlike 
the  English  and  Scotch  acts,  so  limited  in  its 
scope  and  absurdly  •  insufficient,  that  it  was 
laughed  out  of  the  House  of  Commons,  and 
has  never  been  heard  of  since.  An  essential 
accompaniment  of  any  local-government  act 
for  Ireland  should  be,  according  to  "Ob- 
server," the  "retention  of  power  to  check  the 
aberrations  of  1  jcal  authorities."  To  the 
English  mind,  all  acts  of  administration  by  a 
popularly  elected  body,  carrying  out  the 
wishes  of  its  electors,  are  "aberrations"  if 
not  in  accordance  with  English  opinion. 

As  a  solution  of  the  education  question, 
'Observer"  would  leave  the  system   to  be  set- 


payer  making  sacrifices  or  going  to  consid^ 
erable  expense  for  the  purpose  of  quieting 
Irish  discontent,  the  reverse  has  been  the  case. 
Ireland's  discontent  or  disloyalty  is  largely 
due  to  her  poverty,  and  one  cause  of  that  pov- 
erty has  been  excessive  taxation.  Ireland  now 
contributes  about  one-twelfth  of  the  imperial 
revenvie.  Dr.  GifEen  showed  that  vital  statis- 
tics indicate  (1)  a  general  inferior  condition 
of  the  inhabitants  of  Ireland ;  (2)  a  larger 
proportion  of  old  and  feeble  persons,  and  a 
smaller  proportion  of  persons  in  the  prime  of 
life.  Labor  statistics  show  (3)  that,  man  for 
man,  the  incomes  of  the  wage-earning  classes 
in  Ireland  are  little  more  than  half  of  those  in 
Great  Britain,  for  there  are  comparatively 
few  of  the  highly  paid  artisan  class,  and  there 
is  a  great  preponderance  of  the  employments 
paid  at  a  lower  rate  than  others.  (4. )  As  in- 
dicated by  the  income  tax,  Ireland's  proportion 
of  wealth  is  about  one  twenty-fourth  that  of 
the  United  Kingdom,  but,  allowing  for  the 
stricter  assessment  prevalent  in  Ireland  and  for 
a  very  considerable  amount  of  proiierty  taxed 
in  Ireland  but  owned  and  the  income  spent  in 
Englend^  Ireland's  waJ  resoiarees  ars  v^rf- 
much  less  than  the  incorne  tax  figures  show. 
(5, )  Taking  the  death  duties  as  a  standard,. 
Ireland's  proportion  is  about  the  same  as  that 
shown  by  the  income  tax,  but  this  requires  ad- 
justment for  absentee  property,  for  successions 
being  more  frequent  in  Ireland  owing  to  the 
greater  number  of  aged  persons,  and  for  the 
fact  that,  proi)erty  in  Ireland  selling  for  a  less 
number  of  years'  purchase  than  in  Great  Bri- 
tain, the  succession  duty,  levied  heretofore  on 
the  annual  value,  is  a  larger  part  of  the  capital 
value  than  in  Great  Britain.  (6. )  Ireland  is 
rapidly  losing  ground  as  compared  with  Great 
Britain  in  wealth  and  prosperity.  (7. )  A 
very  large  amount  of  British  wealth  engaged 
in  commerce  escapes  taxation,  but  this  is  not 
the  case  in  Ireland.  In  these  circumstances 
the  resources  of  Ireland  as  compared  with 
those  of  Great  Britain  would  be  denoted  by  a 
fraction  between  one-fortieth  and  one-fiftieth 
— that  is,  Ireland's  contribution  to  the  impe- 
rial revenue  should  bo  about  two  instead  of 
eight  milliong. 

In  views  of  these  facts  and  figures  it  is  high- 
ly absurd  to  speak  of  Great  Britain's  liljerality 
or  generosity  to  1  relftnd.  The  excess  of  Irish 
taxation  over  what  vould  be  fair  between  the 
two  countries,  and  the  absentee  rental  remit- 
ted annually  from  Ireland,  have  the  same  finan- 
cial effect  as  a  i)erpetual  bad  harvest,  or  as  if 
the  entire  potato  crop  were  lost,  or  the  whole 
salable  produce  of  the  live  stock  of  the  coun- 
try were  carried  .Hway  without  return.  Ire- 
land, a  purely  agricultural  and  pastoral  coun- 
try, without  foreign  commerce,  and  without 
industries  and  manufactures, has  to  contribute 

of    Great  Bri- 


quently  not  on  the  democratic  basis  that 
"Observer"  suggests  for  our  parliamentary 
representation.  The  first  remedy  he  pro- 
poses is  the  reduction  of  the  number  of  Irish 
members,  inasmuch  as  they  are  now  in  excess 
of  the  proportion  Ireland  is  entitled  to  in  re- 
spect of  her  diminished  and  Great  Britain's 
increased  population ;  but  he  omits  to  state 
that  for  the  first  seventy  years  of  the  century 
Ireland  was  under-represented  on  this  prin- 
ciple. 

"Observer's"  second  remedy  is  to  extend 
the  system  of  local  government  established  in 
Great  Britain  to  Ireland.  This  has  long  been 
asked  for,  and  in  1891  the  Conservatives  took 
oflQce  pledged  to  pass  such  a  measure  for  Ire- 
land. They  produced  a  bill, but  one  so  unlike 
the  English  and  Scotch  acts,  so  limited  in  its 
scope  and  absurdly  insuflBcient,  that  it  was 
laughed  out  of  the  House  of  Commons,  and 
has  never  been  heard  of  since.  An  essential 
accompaniment  of  any  local-government  act 
for  Ireland  should  be,  according  to  "Ob- 
server," the  "retention  of  power  to  check  the 
aberrations  of  1  ^cal  authorities."  To  the 
English  mind,  all  acts  of  administration  by  a 
popularly  elected  body,  carrying  out  the 
wishes  of  its  electors,  are  "aberrations"  if 
not  in  accordance  with  English  opinion. 

As  a  solution  of  the  education  question, 
"Observer"  would  leave  the  system  to  be  set- 
tled in  accordance  with  the  wishes  of  the  Irish 
people ;  but  this  is  just  what  successive  Brit- 
ish governments  have  consistently  refused  to 
do, .  with  the  result  that  in  Ireland  we  are  far 
behind  the  rest  of  the  civilized  world  in  oar 
educational  appliances,  facilities,  and  teach- 
ing. The  state  of  education  in  Ireland  is  a 
remarkable  instance  of  the  incompetence  of 
the  British  government  in  this  country,  and 
of  ita  neglect  of  the  primary  wants  of  the  j^o- 
ple.  In  every  civilized  country,  including 
Great  Britain,  primary  education  has  long 
been  compulsory,  and  supplied  at  the  cost  of 
the  state,  not  of  tbfl  individoale.  It  wa?  only 
last  year  that  a  limited  system  of  compulsion 
was  introduced  into  Ireland,  and  the  whole 
system  of  education,  the  books  prescribed, and 
methods  of  training  and  paying  teachers,  are 
antiquated. 

As  to  secondary  and  university  education : 
confiscations,  spoliation,  and  diversion  of 
Catholic  endowments,  as  well  as  the  ojjeration 
of  the  penal  Ikws,  have  prevented  the  growth 
of  such  a  Fystem  of  schools  and  colleges  as  ex- 
ists in  England ;  but  instead  of  liberally  sup- 
plying a  manifest  want,  grants  of  scanty 
funds,  wrung  from  time  to  time  from  the 
British  Parliament  by  Irish  persistence,  have 
been  accompanied  by  conditions  which  rob- 
bed them  of  both  grace  and  eflSciency.  The 
Catholic   university  in  a  way 


being  more    frequent  in  Ireland  owing  to  the 
greater  number  of  aged    persons,  and  for  the 
fact  that,  property  in  Ireland  selling  for  a  leas 
number  of  years'  purchase  than  in  Great  Bri- 
tain, the  succession  duty,  levied  heretofore  on 
the  annual  value,  is  a  larger  part  of  the  capital 
value  than  in   Great   Britain.     (6. )  Ireland  is 
rapidly  losing  ground  as  compared  with  Great 
Britain    in    wealth    and    prosperity.     (7. )    A 
.very  large  amount  of  British  wealth   engaged 
in  commerce  escapes  taxation,  but  this  is  not 
the    case  in  Ireland.     In    these  circumstances 
the  resources    of    Ireland    as   compared    with 
those  of  Great  Britain  would  'oe   denoted  .by  a 
fraction   between  one-fortieth  and  one-fiftieth 
—that  is,  Ireland's  contribution  to   the  impe- 
rial revenue   should  be    about    two  instead  of 
eight  millions. 

In  views  of  these  facts  and  figures  it  is  high- 
ly absurd  to  speak  of  Great  Britain's  liberality 
or  generosity  to  j  relftnd.  The  excess  of  Irish 
taxation  over  wh&t  v  ould  be  fair  between  the 
two  countries,  and  the  absentee  rental  remit- 
ted annually  from  Ireland,  have  the  same  finan- 
cial effect  as  a  jierpetual  bad  harvest,  or  as  if 
the  entire  potato  crop  were  lost,  or  the  whole 
salable  produce  of  the  live  stock  of  the  coun- 
try were  carried  away  without  return.  Ire- 
land, a  purely  agricultural  and  pastoral  coun- 
try, without  foreign  commerce,  and  without 
industries  and  manufactures, has  to  contribute 
to  the  protection  and  extension  of  Great  Bri- 
tain's vast  commercial  system  and  to  her  cost- 
ly foreign  policy^  and  she  gets  no  return  for 
her  contributions.     - 

The  financial  relations  between  the  two 
countries  are  those  rather  of  a  usurer  and  a 
needy  borrower  than  of  a  mother  or  a  sister 
country.  Irish  deposits  in  the  savings  banks 
amounts  to  about  jET, 000, 000;  the  depositors  re- 
ceive 23^  per  cent,  interest,  and  the  funds  are 
lent  back  to  Ireland  by  the  Treasury  at  not 
less  than  3)^  per  cent.  Ireland  is  reproached 
by  the  British  Pharisee  with  want  of  self-reli- 
ance, with  expecting  government  to  do  every- 
thing ;  but  her  entire  taxable  revenue  is  cap- 
tured 1  y  the  imperial  government,  and  can- 
not bo  spent  except  by  permission  of  Parlia- 
ment. The  waste  and  misapplication  of  pub- 
lic money  could  not  be  worse  under  the  most 
corrupt  Irish  government  conceivable.  Muni- 
cipal and  local  enterprise  is  practically  im- 
possible, for  every  scheme  must  pass  through 
Parliament  at  Westminster,  where  the  ex- 
penses of  passing  an  Irish  "private  bill"  are 
eo  great  as  to  be  prohibitive. 

An  Irishman, 


liJtEATBABZE  AIJR. 


last  year  that  a  limited  system  of  compulsion 
was  introduced  into  Ireland,  and  the  whole 
system  of  education,  the  books  prescribed,  and 
methods  of  training  and  paying  teachers,  are 
antiquated. 

As  to  secondary  and  university  education : 
confiscations,  spoliation,  and  diversion  of 
Catholic  endowments,  as  well  as  the  operation 
of  the  penal  laws,  have  prevented  the  growth 
of  such  a  Fystem  of  schools  and  colleges  as  ex- 
ists in  England ;  but  instead  of  liberally  sup- 
plying a  manifest  want,  grants  of  scanty 
funds,  wrung  from  time  to  time  from  the 
British  Parliament  by  Irish  persistence,  have 
been  accompanied  by  conditions  which  rob- 
bed them  of  both  grace  and  eflSciency.  The 
endowment  of  a  Catholic  university  in  a  way 
to  put  Catholics  on  an  equality  with  the  Pro- 
testant community, which  has  had  the  rich  en- 
dowments of  Trinity  College  as  its  exclusive 
possession  since  the  reign  of  Elizabeth,  has 
been  refused  so  often  that  there  would  be  lit- 
tle grace  in  granting  it  now.  Trinity  College 
is  now  theoretically  open  to  Catholics,  but 
they  are  as  unwilling  to  make  use  of  an  insti- 
tution saturated  with  Protestantism,  under 
Protestant  government  and  teaching,  as  Pro- 
testants would  be  to  send  their  sons  to  a  col- 
lege where  Catholicism  prevaile^to  the  same 
extent.  

"Observer  '  truly  maintains  that  the  root  of 
Irish  discontent  is  dissatisfaction  with  the 
system  of  land  tenure  which  has  lasted  for 
centuries,  and  his  remedy  for  this  is  that  the 
tenants  shall  purchase  the  \ands  by  means  of 
loans  from  the  state.  Well,  on-the  occasion 
of  Mr.  Gladstone's  first  land  act  of  1870, before 
the  franchise  was  broadened  in  Ireland,  this 
was  a  measure  pressed  upon  Parliament  by 
representative  Irishmen,  and  opposed  by  the 
landlord  class;  it  was  one  of  the  planks  in  the 
Land  Lieague  platform  in  1881,  and  was  urged 
on  the  English  government  by  two  landlord 
members  of  a  royal  commission  appointed 
to  inquire  Into  Irish  land  tenure ;  the  princi- 
ple was  at  last  adopted  in  1885  in  a  tentative 
form,  accompanied  by  the  retention  of  so 
many  legal  difficulties  that  at  the  rate  at 
which  it  has  operated  for  the  last  eight  years 
it  would  take  a  century  to  transform  the 
tenant  farmers  of  Ireland  into  owners. 

"Observer"  thinks  the  British  electors 
would  approve  of  a  Dold  and  liberal  scheme 
of  land  purchase  even  if  it  involved  consider- 
able expense.  The  British  electorate  and 
the  Irish  landlords  combined  in  1891  in  refus- 
ing to  accept  a  bold  scheme  proposed  by  Mr. 
Gladstone,  and  one  that  would  have  been  so 
liberal  to  the  landlords  that  it  would  have 
pressed  both  hardly  and  ruinously  on  the  ten- 
ant purchasers  who  might  have  been  compelled 


ance,  wiiu  expecimg  governineni  to  uo  every- 
thing ;  but  her  entire  taxable  revenue  is  cap- 
tured 1  y  the  imperial  government,  and  can- 
not be  spent  except  by  permission  of  Parlia- 
mfinf.  The  waste  and  misapplication  of  pub- 
lic money  could  not  be  worse  under  the  most 
corrupt  Irish  government  conceivable.  Muni- 
cipal and  local  enterprise  is  practically  im- 
possible, for  every  scheme  must  pass  through 
Parliament  at  Westminster,  where  the  ex- 
penses of  passing  an  Irish  "private  bill"  are 
£o  great  as  to  be  prohibitive. 

;_ An  Irishman. 

JiREATBABLE  AIR. 


